Josiah triumphs, four other Savage Horsemen medal

It's crunch time in the wrestling season and the Plains-Hot Springs Savage Horsemen have gotten rolling at precisely the right time.

After placing five P-HS grapplers at the Western B-C divisional tournament in Thompson Falls Saturday, the Savage Horsemen will take those five – Taylor Angle (second at 103 pounds), Peter Carey (third at 120), Conrad Vanderwall (second at 132), Josiah Vanderwall (the division champ at 138) and Steven Yother (third at 285) – into battle at the State B-C tourney in Billings Friday and Saturday at Metra Park in Billings.

Each wrestler there will be hoping to fight through their 16-person brackets and earn a spot on the podium in Montana's showcase prep event, the Montana All-Class tournament.

P-HS's fabulous five will be among those hoping to grapple their ways into medal position, and coach Jeff Kujala thinks his wrestlers are competing at their best now, when it means the most.

"We are peaking at the right time," he said, "and are hoping to carry that on to Billings this week."

The undisputed leader of the pack for P-HS this season, Josiah Vanderwall pinned Arlee's Colt Crawford in 3:00 of the 138-pound championship Saturday and will be setting his sights on a State B-C title this week. Now an impressive 34-3 for the season, he will face off with Blake Zimmerman (33-21) of Huntley Project in the first round Friday.

"Josiah is wrestling smart, very controlled," Kujala said. "He has a very tough field to contend with but should do well if he continues to perform as well as he has this season. He has put a lot of work into this and is right where he needs to be heading into state."

Angle wrestled her way into the championship at 103 before losing to Florence's Oliver Post. "Taylor might have got him had she got her legs in during that match," Kujala said. "But she has a chance of getting into the medal round if she wrestles like she can this week."

Angle will meet Brad Connolly of Anaconda in the first round Friday.

Conrad Vanderwall, who had lost to Mission-Charlo's Cole Gilleard the last two times they had met, turned the tables on Gilleard in the semifinals Saturday. Conrad lost a hard-fought 9-5 decision to Eureka's Nathan Schmidt in the finals, and will wrestle Cole Becker of Circle Friday.

Carey also defeated a foe he had lost twice to earlier by dominating Mission-Charlo's Walker Murphy, winning a 10-0 major decision over Murphy in the consolation finals. Carey will open the State B-C facing off with Cooper Cook of Columbus-Absarokee.

"Conrad and Peter both beat kids that had defeated them twice earlier this season," Kujala said, "and are wrestling their

best right now."

Yother fell in the Western B-C semifinals and settled for third place. He will wrestle Jacob Kingsolver of Shelby in the first round Friday.

Bert DeTienne (145) and Jesse Uski (160) wrestled gamely in Thompson Falls but were not quite able to get into the top four placing spots and punch their tickets to Billings.

The Savage Horsemen finished fifth in teams scoring at the Western B-C.