The Jefferson High School wrestling team hosted a mixer with Cascade and Three Forks on Thursday, December 7. In the mixer format, the wrestlers are matched up against opponents in their weight class and no team scores are kept. Several Jefferson wrestlers were paired up against each other due to a lack of participants from the other teams.
The Panthers suited up 17 wrestlers for the competition. In the first round Michael Mitchell at 113 pounds, Cody St. Clair at 120 pounds, Gino Dalbec and Eli Hauptman at 132 pounds, Jacob Travis at 138 pounds, Nate Brunett at 170 pounds, Drake Schake at 182 pounds and Nick Workman and Caleb Allen at 205 pounds were able to secure a victory by pin.
The second round found Rutger Shultz at 120 pounds, St. Clair, Dalbec, Jayzic Beaupre at 138 pounds, Schake, Allen and Dakota Dorn at 205 pounds getting their hands raised for the win by pin. A few matches were wrestled in the third round and Travis, Dalbec and Hauptman all won.
The Panther wrestling team then traveled to the Whitehall Alumni Dual Team Tournament on Friday and Saturday, December 8 and 9. Once again the Panthers suited up 17 wrestlers and were able to fill ten weight classes out of a possible thirteen. There were 16 teams entered into the tournament.
Wrestling for Jefferson was Emma Brown at 103 pounds, Michael Mitchell at 113 pounds, Cody St. Clair and Rutger Shultz at 120 pounds, Eric Lufkin at 126 pounds, Eli Hauptman and Gino Dalbec at 132 pounds, Jacob Travis and Jayzic Beaupre at 138 pounds, Nate Brunett and Brett Hale at 170 pounds, Derek Nygaard and Drake Schake at 182 pounds, Nick Workman, Caleb Allen and Dakota Dorn at 205 pounds and Nathan Rasch at 285 pounds.
The Panthers opened the tournament on Friday by wrestling Three Forks. Jefferson pitched a shut-out as every wrestler won by pin. The final score was 59-12 with Three Forks scoring their points from forfeits.
Next up for the Panthers was Bozeman JV, a tough opponent
that was able to fill all but two weight classes. The dual went back and forth with Jefferson finishing on top by wrestling to a 48-30 win.
Emma Brown, Michael Mitchell, Cody St. Clair, Jacob Travis, Nate Brunett, Derek Nygaard, Nick Workman and Nathan Rasch scored points for Jefferson with St. Clair, Travis, Brunett, Nygaard, Workman and Rasch winning by pin. The final dual for the day was against Helena High JV.
Once again Jefferson was able to overpower their opponents and pitched another shut-out as every wrestler won by pin. The final score was 66-6 with Helena High scoring their points from forfeits.
Individually Jefferson had a 38-4 record for Friday. Brown, Mitchell, St. Clair, Travis, Brunett, Nygaard, Workman and Rasch led the Panther scoring while each earned a perfect 3-0 on the day.
Jefferson finished first in their pool on Friday which qualified them for the championship bracket in Saturday’s action. This put the Panthers in the top 8 out of 16 teams.
In Saturday’s competition, Jefferson squared off against Anaconda in their first dual. The
Panthers made the dual close, but the Copperheads would prevail 42-27. Collecting wins for Jefferson were Emma Brown, Michael Mitchell, Jacob Travis, Brett Hale, and Derek Nygaard.
Brown, Travis, Nygaard and Hale had victories coming by way of pin.
Next up was Whitehall. Jefferson found out that spotting three weight classes and eighteen points was too much of a disadvantage to overcome the full squads that they faced on the second day. Jefferson once again made the dual exciting with the lead going back and forth. However, they were unable to pull out the victory and ended up being defeated 48-30. Securing points for Jefferson were Michael Mitchell, Cody St.Clair, Jacob Travis, Brett Hale and Nick Workman. Mitchell, St. Clair, Travis and Hale stapled their opponents.
Individually Jefferson had a 20-12 record for Saturday. Leading Jefferson on Saturday were Mitchell, Travis and Hale with 2-0 records. Jefferson ended the tournament with individual efforts of 58 wins and 16 losses for both days. Mitchell and Travis led the Panthers with a spotless 5-0 record for both days. Wrestling to a 4-1 record were Brown, St. Clair, Nygaard and Workman.
“We had a great week of wrestling while competing in nearly 100 matches total for the three days,” said Coach Troy Humphrey.“It was disappointing to not be able to fill every weight class with 27 wrestlers on the team. We have some wrestlers out with sickness and injury and that made the difference in Saturday’s duals.”
Michael Mitchell has been selected by his coaches as the JHS Panther Wrestler of the Week. Mitchell ended his week with a 6-0 record, three of those pins. Mitchell pinned an opponent from Helena High that had defeated him a week earlier in Cascade. Drake Schake has been selected by his coaches as the JHS Panther JV Wrestler of the Week. Schake went 6-0 on the week, all first-period pins.
Derek Nygaard had the Quick Pin of the Week for the Panthers when he pinned his opponent in 13 seconds.The next action for the Panther wrestling team will be on Friday and
Saturday, December 15 and 16 at the CMR Holiday Classic Tournament with over 40 schools participating. The best teams from Class AA, A and BC will be there with this tournament being tougher than the state tournament in Billings.
