Building Blocks Placed

The rebuilding has begun for Glasgow High School's storied wrestling program.

This year's bigger and better version of the mat Scotties, with 15 roster members, placed 10th among 22 teams at last weekend's loaded Sidney Eagle Invitational. Tanner Roness placed third at 205 pounds, the highest Scottie finisher and tops among all Montana grapplers in his weight class.

"You know, it went better than I expected," new Glasgow coach Jory Casterline told The Courier. "The kids are a little further along than I expected."

Also placing for GHS were:

• Freshman Matt Heyling eighth at 103.

• Sophomore Kasey Seyfert eighth at 120.

• Junior Cody King seventh at 145.

• Senior Jake Hentges eighth at 145.

• Sophomore Tony Kaiser sixth at 170.

• Senior Joe Doney seventh at heavyweight.

Coach Casterline isn't one to casually recognize individual performances, instead preferring to focus on the team as a whole. But Roness, the hard-driving fullback on this year's football Scotties playoff team, impressed him. Roness defeated Billings West's Spencer Johnson, 9-4, to take third.

"Tanner had a great tournament," Casterline said. "If there were no out-of-state teams, Tanner wins (first), looking at it on paper anyways."

Winning at 205 was Cody Vigoren of Lake Stevens, Wash., who defeated Chris Bailey of Poway, Calif., 2-1, in two overtimes. The powerful Poway team won the tourney with 337 points, Sidney was second at 187 and Lake Stevens third at 156.5.

Casterline said "a great motivator" for GHS was that it finished only 5.5 points behind Forsyth, which competes in the same class. He speculated that had Scottie Gabe Hallock been able to wrestle at 113 – he didn't because of insufficient practice time – it might have made the difference to put Glasgow ahead of Forsyth.

Now it's back to practice to "fix some little things, work on technique and keep moving forward," Casterline said.

The Scotties have a busy week. Thursday brings a meet at Wolf Point with the Wolves, Poplar and Circle. Junior high wrestlers go at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 7.

Saturday is the Glasgow Invitational with Malta, Wolf Point and Poplar. Junior high teams go at 10 a.m., high school teams at 2 p.m.

In conjunction with the Scottie invite, signups for Glasgow AAU Highlander wrestling will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 1 at GHS for wrestlers 4 to 18 years old. New wrestlers need to bring birth certificates.

"We're trying to build excitement for Glasgow wrestling with everything under one roof," Casterline said of Saturday's events.

The rebuilding continues.

Sidney Eagle Invitational

Team Scores

1. Poway, Calif., 337, 2. Sidney 187, 3. Lake Stevens, Wash., 156.5, 4. Billings Skyview 118.5, 5. Billings Senior 117, 6. Colstrip 98, 7. Billings West 85, 8. Killdeer, N.D., 82.5, 9. Forsyth 74.5, 10. Glasgow 69, 11. Bowman, N.D., 12. Beulah, N.D., 49, 13. Glendive 42, 14. Hardin 39, 15. Williston, N.D., 31, 16. Circle 22, 17. Baker 19, 18. Miles City 15, 19. Broadus 13, 20. Poplar 12, 21. Wolf Point 10, 22. Dickinson, N.D., 2.

Glasgow Results

Third Place

205: Tanner Roness, Gla, d. Spenser Johnson, BW, 9-4.

Fifth Place

170: Tyrel Mellmer, Beu, p. Tony Kaiser, Gla, :10.

Seventh Place

103: Jake Bennett, LS, d. Matthew Reyling, Gla, 5-3. 120: Garrett Gershmel, LS, p. Casey Seyfert, Gla, 3:52. 145: Cody King, Gla, p. Jake Hentges, Gla, 1:42. Hwt: Joe Doney, Gla, p. Kyle Schillinger, Cir, 4:28.