10/10: Will Wrestle Again

"Our expectation is state. Our goal is a trophy."

The Glasgow boys wrestling team will be sending 10 grapplers to the State tournament in Billings after all qualified, as expected, at the Divisional meet in Colstrip this past weekend. Shay Pedersen will become the first Glasgow Scottie to wrestle in the girls state tournament.

Head coach Jory Casterline fully expected that all of his grapplers would be moving on to compete for a position on the state podium. As a team, the Scottie boys finished in second place with 152.5 points, behind rivals Huntley Project, who earned 288 points.

Coming in second is not new for the Scotties at the Divisional meet. They placed second the last couple years before moving on to win the state title.

"We're sitting good in the brackets, sitting in good spots," Casterline said. "That gives our guys good shots, good chances at the podium."

Jake Kuka was the only Scottie to bring home an individual title from the Divisional meet. The Glasgow senior pinned Forsyth's Payne Reilly in 4:40 to win the 113 lbs. class.

"Kuka had a great weekend," Casterline said. "He's wrestling with confidence. The old Jake is back. That's a good sign. It's nice."

Kyler Hallock finished in second place to Mason Garfield of Wolf Point in a 7-3 decision. Hallock will represent Glasgow in the 205 lbs. class at State.

Damien Nesbitt, 170 lbs., and Devon Nesbitt, 160 lbs., both earned third places in their weight classes. Damien Nesbitt pinned Malta's Spencer Gibbs in 2:40 in the third place match. Devon Nesbitt won a 19-5 major decision over Colstrip's Zach Cox for his third place finish.

Jack Cornwell fell to Bryson Barteleson of Circle in the 138 lbs. third place match, earning the junior a fourth-place finish. Mason Donaldson also finished in fourth place after losing a 13-9 decision to Colstrip's Ian Willoughby in the 152. lbs. class.

Ted See, Ted Tryan, Michael King and Austin Hughes all earned seventh places at the Divisional tournament and a trip to state.

See joins Kuka in the 113 lbs. competition at State after pinning Baker's Jaron Lingle in 2:58. Tryan, along with Cornwell, will wrestle at 138 lbs. at state. He won a 9-8 decision over Sheldon Serrano over Roundup.

King pinned Taylin Johannesen of Malta to earn his seventh place finish at 145 lbs. Hughes received a bye at 182 lbs. in the seventh place match and moves on to State.

Casterline said that the team had a bad round Saturday morning and dropped several winnable matches. "We came out on the wrong end," he said but stressed that the things that went wrong for the Scotties are all fixable and the team will be addressing those issues this week in practice.

However a number of teams, including Huntley Project, will be looking to thwart a three-peat by the Scotties. Casterline was not sure where his team will sit entering the final round at the Metra in Billings Saturday but is counting on his team to give it their all.

"Right now all we can do is stay positive, stay focused, wrestle hard and leave everything we have out there."

The Scotties depart Glasgow Thursday morning, Feb. 10. The girls competition will begin at 4 p.m. that day at the Metra in Billings.

The boys tournament begins with the Parade of Athletes at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 11 with consolation matches beginning at approximately 6 p.m. that evening. Semifinal and Consolation Quarter-Final matches start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 12. The Parade of Finalists is scheduled for 4 p.m that day with Championship Finals immediately following the National Anthem.

A full schedule of events can be found on the Glasgow Scotties Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowHighSchoolScotties/