Wrestlers push through long weekend of duals

The Whitefish wrestling team had a busy week, wrestling duals against Lake City and Frenchtown Thursday before heading to Idaho for the River City Duals over the weekend.

The Bulldogs wrestled in seven duals between Thursday and Saturday, but gaps in several weight classes had a big impact on overall team points.

“When it was all said and done, I think we had eight weight classes filled, so that didn’t work out well for us,” head coach Ryan Boyle said. “But the wrestling was good for us.”

Whitefish on Thursday fell to Frenchtown 68-6 and Lake City 57, 18. At the River City Duals, Whitefish lost against Freeman, Columbia, Lewis and Clark and Timberlake, but picked up a late win against Gonzaga Preparatory for seventh place in the bronze division.

Picking up that last win after a rough start was good for the team’s morale, Boyle said.

“Going into that last dual, everybody was down,” Boyle said. “What are you going to do about? Are you going to focus on excuses or are you going to go out there and wrestle as hard as you can. They responded really well.”

Senior Travis Catina won all of his matches over the weekend.

Whitefish travels to Belgrade Saturday for the Class A dual. It’s the first year every Class A school will be attending, and Boyle said it’s a good chance to see how his team stacks up against other schools they won’t see again until the state tournament.

“We get to see some teams we never get to see, and then you get to see where you stack up when it comes to state and what you need to work on,” he said.

Frenchtown 68, Whitefish 6

Vs. Frenchtown

103 — Walker Dyer, F, pinned Anwar Mirza, 2:22; 113 — Jake Bibler, F, won by forfeit; 120 — Zach Blanchard, F, pinned Carlitos Bertelson, 2:20; 126 — Owen Indreland, F, pinned Eli Taylor, 2:33; 132 — Riley Gurr, F, pinned Dakota Flannery, 2:29; 138 — Cade Livoti, F, tech fall Robert Bertelson, 20-5; 145 — Bryce Williams, F, pinned Isaac Watts, 1:48; 152— Manuel Zapata, F, won by forfeit; 160 — Michael Edwards, F, dec. Malik Heydon, 6-5; 170— Tate Jones, F, won by forfeit; 182 — Levi Downard, F, won by forfeit; 205 — Travis Catina, W, won by forfeit; 285 — Jesse Mecham, F, won by forfeit.

Lake City (Idaho) 57, Whitefish 18

Vs. Lake City (Idaho)

113 – Cyrus Mortensen, LC, pin Anwar Mirza, :41; 126 – Jake Ramsrud, LC, pin Eli Taylor, 2:43; 132 – Dakota Flannery, W, pin Kaleb Strickler, 1:56; 138 – Skylar Neils, LC, dec. Robert Bertelsen, 10-6; 145 – Chase Lathim, LC, pin Isaac Watts, 1:15; 160 – Griffin Schoch, LC, pin Malik Heydon, 1:39; 205 – Travis Catina, W, pin Rusty Dan, 3:06.

Forfeits: 103, 120, 152, 170, 182, 285.