The lone home wrestling meet on the calendar for Big Sandy came and went in a flash.
Class C wrestling programs on and near the Hi-Line are depleted right now and it showed Thursday evening.
“With the sicknesses and injuries, (visitors) brought about half of their kids,” Pioneers coach Tucker Taylor said.
Though it required some of the boys on the Fort Benton-Big Sandy coop team, Harlem and Chinook to step up a weight class or two, each grappler present got to wrestle at least two, and in some cases, three matches.
Freshman Tannin Baumann went the distance in his first bout with Lane Snider of Chinook, dropping a 15-6 decision. He took 1 minute, 10 seconds to record his first victory on the home mat against Landen Grey of Harlem by fall. He concluded the evening defeated by a 19-second fall to Harlem’s Darrius Longknife.
“That’s the hardest Tannin has wrestled,” Taylor said. “In front of the home crowd, he decided he needed to get out there and fight.”
With typical freshman exuberance, Baumann, in his 11th year of wrestling going back to his Little Guy days, is looking forward to the divisional meet Friday in Conrad.
“There’s going to be some tough guys and I’m going to meet some guys who beat me again,” he said. “I’m going to be going to the gym a lot and I hope I can beat them.”
Junior Bayley Genereux earned a 14-5 decision in his favor going up against Chinook’s Drake Berreth. Braydon Evans, a teammate from Fort Benton, pinned Genereux in 1 minute, 23 seconds.
“It’s good for Bayley to get mat time a week after coming off influenza B,” Taylor said. “We just need to clean up a few little things before divisionals ... Bayley’s going to have to wrestle hard. He’s in one of the toughest brackets in (Class) B/C.”
As for Baumann, Taylor said he has already grown and bumped up in weight this season and another spurt could be in store before next season.
“The biggest thing in the offseason will be hitting the weights,” he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Pictures we requested were not sent to us in time for our deadline.
