Eagle Wrestling Tournament This Week

The Sidney/Fairview wrestling team is holding their annual Eagle Wrestling Tournament Dec. 1-2. Wrestling action will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday. For the boys, Friday will begin with all duals. There will be 10 mats running simultaneously. There will be six mats at the Sidney High School with top 16 seated teams and four mats at Central Elementary with the 15 lower seated teams. Championship duals will begin at 2:45 p.m. Friday with the first round of individual tournament beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday night. The individual tournament will continue beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday with the championship starting at approximately 5 p.m.

Girls wrestling will begin on Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Sidney High School in a round robin format. The first round of individual bracket action will begin at 5:30 p.m. Girls action will continue Saturday at 9 a.m. with the placing rounds taking place at 3 p.m. All girls' matches will take place at the high school.

Teams from states across the country will be represented at this year's tournament. In addition to a slew of Montana and North Dakota teams, wrestlers from Adam City, CO; Post Falls, ID; Lake Stevens, WA; and Rapid City Central, SD, will be competing at the tournament. Competing in the tournament for the first time will be Mead, CO. There will be a total of 30 teams at the event.

Sidney's returning state placers include Gordon Knapp and Brody Keysor as well as two-time state champion Reece Graves.

This year's team is a young group with over half the team in either 8th or 9th grade. "They are pretty young but they are well traveled," stated head coach Guy Melby. "They are pretty decent." Most of these underclassmen have come though the AAU, USAW and middle school wrestling programs. They have experience at large national tournaments across the country.

These young wrestlers poised to be the heart of the team for years to come. "We are expecting some big things out of them," continued Melby. "They work really hard. This will be the same team for virtually the next four years."