In just his second year of wrestling, Big Sandy junior Bayley Genereux extended his season a week longer than last year by qualifying for the state tournament.
Next year as a senior, the challenge will be to push it just one more day.
Genereux finished with a 22-21 record for the season. He began with a first-round loss Friday at the Class B-C state wrestling tournament at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark in Billings to the eventual state champion in the 138-pound division.
Nathan Schmidt, of Eureka, who went 40-2 for the year, won by fall in 1 minute, 25 seconds.
"(Bayley) was able to stop the first shot," Big Sandy coach Tucker Taylor said. "The second one, though, he had him."
Genereux lasted to the third round in the first wrestleback against Garrett Sholley of Huntley Project but one slip-up permitted Sholley (22-17) to get the pin at 4 minutes, 15 seconds.
"He wrestled well. He's still young and just makes a few mistakes," Taylor said. "If you're out of position, you run the risk of getting burned ... it's good for him to get an opportunity at state."
Taylor said Genereux's topping the 20-win mark in a season with as little experience as he has is an impressive feat.
Just being in the atmosphere of the state all-class wrestling tourney is remarkable. Taylor said Fort Benton, with which Big Sandy co-ops for wrestling, brought a sizable contingent of fans to the meet but Genereux had parents and grandparents in the stands to represent Big Sandy.
His Longhorn teammates included Trevor O'Hara, who placed sixth in the 103-pound weight class and Hayden Axman, the sixth-place finisher at 182.
Taylor said one of the few disappointments of the event came when the Fort Benton-Big Sandy squad, anticipating the possibility of hardware as third-place finishers as a team in Class C, were told by MHSA officials late in the tournament that the schools' combined enrollment bumped them up to the Class B level. Just a week earlier, they missed out on a third-place trophy by just two points and were only six away from second behind Cut Bank, who ran away with the Northern Divisional.
Genereux stands a very good chance of making it back to the second day and earning a place at state next year, and with that, a portrait on the wall at Big Sandy High School, alongside dozens of divisional champions and state-placers in Pioneer wrestling history.
