Wolves Enjoy Success At State Meet
Wolf Point’s girl wrestlers competed at the inaugural girls’ all class state wrestling meet at Lockwood High School in Billings on Friday, Feb. 19, and Saturday, Feb. 20.
“This was an awesome event with 149 some girls from 45 schools in AA A B and C,” Wolf Point Coach Scott Vandall said. “The crowd was electric and the girls put one heck of show on.”
Joli Beston went 3-1 on the weekend. She started out with a win over a Hamilton girl. “She scored the first takedown and near fall on us, but in usually Joli fashion she got fired up and rolled through a pin and she got on top of her, Vandall said. “She glued her to the mat and that was that.”
Beston then drew the number two seed and ranked girl from Glacier. “Joli went out with aggression. We put her right to her back and through in a body scissors one one side. We held her there for about 30 seconds and then in a scramble out the same move on the other side of the girl,” Vandall said. “Joli had that on so tight and hard the girl put her shoulders to the mat and said game over.
Beston advanced to the semi-finals and guaranteed her a top six place. On Saturday morning, she had the fifth seed and ranked girl in the state from Billings Senior. “This poor girl didn’t know what happened. We came out and got really aggressive and put her right on her back and that was it,” Vandall said. “Joli was off the the championship.”
She faced the fourth seed in the bracket and state from Valier. “We got an early penalty point for a illegal slam. Then, we got taken down and got another penalty point for locked hands,” Vandall said. “We ended the period 2-2. We took top, she got a reversal and we got put on our back and that was it.”
Beston finished in second place. “Joli is a freshman and lost to a senior who is going to wrestle for Providence in Great Falls next year. So there’s nothing to hang her head about,” Vandall said.
Wolf Point’s Samantha Reed went 2-2 on the weekend. After a first-round bye, Reed took on the third seed and ranked girl in the state from Flathead. “Samantha took it right to her, hit a sweet double leg and controlled the match right from the start,” Vandall said. “She won by fall.”
Reed then lost a tough match to a girl from Huntley Project on a fall.
She then went to the wrestle- backs and drew another Flathead wrestler. “Samantha went out with a mission. She got after the girls and put her out of the state meet,” Vandall said. “Samantha won by fall. She made her goal of making it to a second day.”
Reed then drew a tough girl that she had wrestled twice from Baker. “This girls just seems to have her number, we lost by fall,” Vandall said. “Samantha wrestled the best that I ever seen. She went 2-2 and missed placing by one match. We were very happy as she did everything we asked. On a personal note, I was very proud as her coach and even more proud as her Godfather.”
As a team, Wolf Point finished in 18th out of 47 teams. “We had a great meet. Couldn’t of asked for more,” Vandall said. “Man, I will tell you one thing that there was a lot of Class BC girls that just flat kicked some Class A and AA girls’ butts. The B-C girls are just so much more aggressive then them because we have match ups with boys. I want to say congrats to Jason and the Poplar staff along with their state champ Jazmin Gorder. They deserve it.”
