Independently owned since 1905
Independently owned since 1905
PLAINS SENIOR Josiah Vanderwall wrestles against Arlee's Colt Crawford in the 138 pound championship match at the Ted Kato Invitational Saturday. Vanderwall won by pin late in the first period.
HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT - Conrad Vanderwall (left) won the 132 pound championship to join his brother Josiah in the Ted Kato Invite's winners circle.
The Plains-Hot Springs Savage Horsemen scored 98.5 team points and placed fourth out of 10 teams in the 2019 Ted Kato Invitational wrestling tournament in Thompson Falls Saturday.
With only one week of regular season action remaining, the Savage Horsemen will wrap it up participating in a mixer match in Arlee Friday and hosting a mixer match in Plains Saturday. Coach Jeff Kujala says the mixer in Plains, set to begin at 10:30 a.m., will also serve as senior day for the P-HS wrestlers.
Kujala said Arlee, Bigfork, Clark Fork, Mission-Charlo, Florence and Thompson Falls have been invited to attend but that he is not absolutely sure which of those teams will or will not show up.
"It's that time of the season," he said. "Some wrestlers are a little banged up, others might be a little sick, and we have all seen each other so many times – some teams take this last week to heal and rest up a little bit."
P-HS wrestlers were not resting in the Kato Saturday as evidenced by the championship runs made by brothers Conrad and Josiah Vanderwall, who claimed the titles at 132 and 138 pounds, and the placing efforts of three other Savage Horsemen wrestlers.
Taylor Angle won her way into the 103 pound championship before falling and settling for second place, Peter Carey, after losing a heartbreaker in overtime in the semifinals came back to claim third place at 120 pounds, and Jesse Uski also battled back from a semifinal loss to win third place at 160.
Bert DeTienne (145 pounds) and Stephen Yother (285) also wrestled for P-HS in the Kato. DeTienne won two matches before being eliminated.
Coach Kujala was impressed with how his wrestlers performed.
"Placing five out of our seven kids is really nice," he said, "and three of them being underclassmen is good too."
Josiah Vanderwall and Uski are seniors, Conrad Vanderwall a junior, Carey a sophomore and Angle a freshman.
Josiah pinned his way to the 138-pound title, taking down Derek Knoll of the Flathead JV (2:30), Brody Skillicorn of the Big Sky JV (1:24), Jesse Horn of the Sentinel JV (4:35) and finally Colt Crawford of Arlee (1:42) in the championship match.
Conrad grabbed his Kato gold by pinning Ira Williams of Missoula Sentinel in 5:11, sticking Jonah Raish of Kalispell Flathead in 2:43 and winning by tech fall over Jack Fisher of Flathead in the title match.
Angle pinned Ashley Knigge of Big Sky in 3:36 and Koty Dillard of Mission-Charlo to gain the 103 finals, where Tony Silveria of Big Sky won by pin in 4:26.
Carey rebounded from a 4-2 overtime loss to rival Walker Murphy of Mission-Charlo in the semifinals, pinning Isaiah Fields, also of Mission-Charlo, in 19 seconds, and then sticking Kyle McCollam of Glacier in 26 seconds of the consolation final to win third place.
Uski won his third place medal by pinning William Dauwe of Sentinel in 1:00 of the 160 pound consolation final.
Kujala, who was joined by assistant coaches Jake Lile and Rocky Wagoner in guiding the P-HS wrestlers in Thompson Falls, was upbeat in his latest assessment of the Savage Horsemen.
"The kids all performed well," he said. "We look forward to the rest of the season and seeing how everyone does these last few weeks."
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