Blue Devils bring home championship
When it came down to it, the fate of the Corvallis Blue Devils wasn’t even in their own hands at the Class A state wrestling tournament in Billings over the weekend. Corvallis had the lead in the team scoring with one match left to go Saturday night, but neither of the two wrestlers in the match was from Corvallis. Eli Hinebauch of Havre and Laurel’s Tommy Cooper were wrestling for the 152 championship. A win by Cooper would give defending state champion Laurel a second straight championship. A win by Hinebauch was a win for Corvallis. Hinebauch won in the final seconds of the match with a 3-0 decision and the Corvallis Blue Devils were state champs for the first time in 10 years.
Corvallis took 18 wrestlers to the state tournament but only brought home one championship. Chase Connor, who is actually a Darby student, defeated Billings Central’s Zach Wall in a 14-10 decision at 105 pounds. Connor opened with a pin over Whitefish’ Garrett Rice at 1:52. It took him a little longer in the quarterfinals but Connor pinned Sidney’s Layne Schafer. Havre’s Dylan Stewart was Connor’s opponent in the semi finals. Connor pinned him at the 3:59 mark and advanced on to the championship.
At 140 pounds, Travis Davis was hoping to bring home his fourth state championship but it was not to be. Davis lost in the championship round to Belgrade’s Ethan Sterling in a 17-10 decision. Davis entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed. He defeated Sidney’s Jace Buxbaum at 3:45. In the quarterfinals, Davis defeated Josh Chamberlain of Lewistown in a 13-3 decision. Davis met up with Dillon Beeler of Glendive and defeated him with an 11-0 decision.
Riley Nagel and Dilan Starkel of Dillon have battled each other all season in the 160-pound division. Nagel defeated Starkel in their last duo in Corvallis prior to the divisional tournament. But Starkel topped Nagel in the Southwest A Divisional last weekend and he did so again in the championship round on Saturday. Although it was close, Starkel won with a 5-1 decision. Nagel opened up against Frenchtown’s Sam Gordan and defeated him with a pin at 2:48 into the match. His next match was against George Smith of Billings Central. Nagel won with a 12-2 decision. Nagel quickly defeated Havre’s Kameron Pribyl in the semi finals with a pin just over a minute into the match.
Tyler Olsen had a bye in his opening match and then breezed through the next two matches at 112 pounds before falling to Sidney’s Gresch Jones and an 8-0 major decision to finish in second place. He defeated Polson’s Carlos Quinones with a pin and then defeated Hunter Grover of Laurel in a 16-3 major decision in the semi finals.
In consolation action, the Blue Devils had a couple wrestlers take third. Wyatt Lott defeated teammate Kenny Thomas for third at 135 pounds. Devan Williams was third at 145 pounds. James DuBose was fourth at 119, Quincy Jessop was fourth at 152 and Austin Atkins returned from an early season injury to take fourth in the heavyweight division.
Hamilton finished down in the pack with 36 points. Derrick Sisneros finished fourth at 105 pounds. Forrest Fortney was fourth at 189 pounds.
Florence finished in seventh place with 81 points. Forsyth won the championship with 211 points. Torren Lawson lost to Wolf Point’s Maestro Martinez at 98 pounds in a 6-0 decision in the championship round. Tanner Lund also finished second. Riley DeBruycker of Fort Benton topped him in a close 10-8 decision. In the consolation rounds, Kody Davidson lost to Scott Gilleard of St. Ignatius and finished fourth. Tanner Cobbs defeated Austin Burshia of Poplar at 171 to finish fifth and Noah Sax lost to Layne Durfree of Choteau at 145 to finish sixth
