Glacier second, Flathead fourth at Pacific Northwest Classic wrestling tournament

SPOKANE, Wash. - Three champions, two runners-up, three third-place finishers - the Kalispell schools did well at this weekend's Pacific Northwest Classic wrestling tournament in Spokane.

In the team standings, the Glacier Wolfpack finished second with 174 points and the Flathead Braves, nine-strong, came in fourth at 150. Host University High won the tournament with 208 points and Central Valley was third at 159.

Champions are Flathead's Jeremiah Gaiser at 145, Glacier's Shane St. Onge at 152 and Flathead's Connor Thomas at 285.

In second place were Flathead's Steel Hahn at 152 and Glacier's Joel Horn at 285.

St. Onge and Hahn continued their season-long battle with St. Onge coming away with a 4-2 overtime decision in the championship.

Thomas pinned Horn at heavyweight.

"It was awesome, a great team effort. Every single kid won a match and we had 10 placers. That's pretty dang cool," said Glacier coach Mark Fischer.

"We might even stop at a nicer restaurant (to celebrate)," he laughed.

Flathead may have found itself a better place to eat, too.

Fourth place "is pretty darn good for only having nine kids," said Flathead coach Matt Owen.

"We were pretty close to the trophies. I feel really good. This is a good weekend, a stepping stone. I'm very happy. It would have been nice to punch a couple more into the finals, but I thought it was a great tournament for us," Owen said.

The two champions - Gaiser and Thomas - "both wrestled fantastic," the coach said.

"Jeremiah pinned everybody. He's just progressively been getting better every weekend. Nobody even came close to him this weekend. I think he's going to have a great end to the season."

Gaiser spent a grand total of three minutes, five seconds on the mat on Saturday.

As for Thomas, he had only one match go the distance.

The kids "feel really good. They all wrestled really well," Owen said.

When the Wolfpack headed home from a before-break tournament in Great Falls, it had finished 0-7 in the final round.

Heads were hanging.

But on Saturday, the Wolfpack was 6-4 in the final round.

"We finished strong. Huge improvement. The kids feel really good about where they are right now. They are enjoying the fact that every time they go out there, they are improving a little bit," Fischer said.

"Every single kid went out and wrestled with a lot of heart. We heard a lot of good things about our team," he said.

Others who placed for Glacier were Alek Mitchell, fourth at 112, Lucas Mantel, fourth at 130, Cooper Sipe, fifth at 140, Grant Tafoya, third at 145, Riley Pisk, third at 160, Lane Armstrong, fifth at 171, Boyce Ballard, fifth at 189, and Mack Sutherland, fourth at 215.

"I could go through every single kid," Fischer said.

"Grant Tafoya wrestled really well at 145, Mack Sutherland (215) and Horn (285) did awesome and Lane Armstrong wrestled with a shoulder injury to a fifth-place finish (171). I was real proud of him," the coach said.

Others who placed for Flathead were Cody Tally, third at 125, Caleb Piasecki, fifth at 119, Larry Francis, fifth at 160, and Josh Erickson, fourth at 171.

Owen added a compliment for Cody Tally, third at 125.

"He had a really good tournament. He lost a one-point overtime match in the semifinals and the kid he lost to is a really tough kid," the coach said.

Both teams will travel next weekend to the Rocky Mountain Classic at Missoula Sentinel.

Pacific Northwest Classic

University High

Spokane, Wash.

Team Totals

UHigh 208, Glacier 174, Central Valley 159, Flathead 150, Richland 136.5, Shadle Park 123.5, Lakeside 118, Othello 110.5, North Central 92, Mt. Spokane 69, Wenetchee 62, Lake City 60, Southridge 48, Lewis & Clark 33.5, Ferris 30, Hanford 26, Pigdogs 26, Gonzaga Prep 0