RONAN — It’s not every day a group of touring foreign wrestlers comes to town for a freestyle battle. But on Saturday night there they were, exchanging gifts with a team of Ronan and Mission wrestlers before the dual began - 13 matches to three rounds against the Germans.

It was an exciting event, made just a bit more special when Ronan won the competition by a score of 7-6 matches. Ronan pulled from a wide range of talent, from Mission and Ronan high schoolers, their coach and a group of older Mission Valley wrestlers who made their mark on the mats during  high school and afterward.

And what a show it was, coming down to the final match between next year’s Ronan head wrestling coach to-be Dustyn Azure and German opponent Julian Fauth.

Each team had six wins when the pair took to the mats.

Fauth started the grappling with a first round win, but Azure took the advantage in the second. By the third, he rode the pressure of the deciding match to a pin.

Azure, who will replace Ryan Fisher as Ronan head coach in the upcoming season after working for a few years as an assistant, was happy to pull that one out.

“It kind of put the new coach on the line. It would have been a bummer if I would have lost it for them,” he said.

Azure is 2-time All-American wrestler, and hopes to lead a strong Ronan program into next season at full steam.

The final match was the climax, but there was no shortage of excitement leading up to that point. In fact, the Ronan team hosted the Germans to more than just wrestling. Starting Thursday, barbecues helped space out a weekend of Valley. Azure and Fisher took the German’s floating on the Flathead River, to the National Bison Range, on a horse back ride at the Cheff Guest Ranch and hired a Native American dancer to put on a show. Needless to say, the wrestlers and coaches got to know each other a bit.

“We really got to know each other’s cultures,” Azure said.

Since the two clubs became friends, it only made sense that they should test their skill and strength against each other.

Mission wrestler Scotty Gilleard put up a valiant fight in the 115-pound match with Matthias Majer, snagging the first round win, but taking a pin in the third.

Ryan Hardy, who wrestled one year for Ronan before beginning a college career in Wisconsin was pinned by Sebastian Jager at 132 pounds.

A friend of Azure, Nick Luedke, got the same treatment when he battled Alexander Esslinger.

Two-time high school state champ Jamie Muir  graduated from Ronan in 2000 and wrestled at West Virginia before joining the Northern Montana team. He quickly defeated Benjamin Rossler in his match.

A Mission graduate this year, Michael Beebe took a win by decision after three rounds expired on German Michael Mailander. Another big-timer from Ronan High School wrestling, three-time state champ Rocky Cote didn’t leave any doubt behind after his match. It didn’t take him long to get a pin on the German’s Daniel Rossler.

Cal Courville, another 2-time state champ for Ronan, wasn’t as lucky. Martin Mauer got the better of him with a pin in the second round.

The oldest member of the Ronan club at 29, Courville wrestled for the first time in a while.

“It’s pretty tough for anyone who used to win like he did in high school to come out and lose like that,” Azure said of his teammate.

Azure added that Courville was pleased to the opportunity to face off once again against some tough competition.

Two-time Ronan state champ Colt Jore had a tough go against German Torten Oppold, but pulled it out like he used to in his days of dominance with a late pin.

Jore may have been a little outsized and a bit out of shape, Jore admitted.

“He’s probably a lot stronger than me,” Jore said of his opponent. “I kind of had to use technique to get him, use some pretty tricky moves.”

At 185 pounds German Andreas Weidermann pinned last year’s third place state finisher Josh Krantz.

At 200 pounds, Tony Peretto returned the favor with a pin on Georg Dennier. 

A graduate of Ronan this year, Marcus Schiele probably had the toughest draw in Rudolf Munkle. Munkle was the only German to win out in a tour of six Montana wrestling clubs. He beat two All-American wrestlers on the tour before facing Schiele and managed to roll the Ronan fourth-place state finisher for a pin to complete his sweep.

Cole McCarthur pinned German Martin Rossler in one of the final matches.

“That was really fun,” McCarthur said, adding that it was his first ever freestyle match. “For me it was a really good experience.”

For McCarthur it marked a full recovery from a torn meniscus that put a damper on his high school season this year. Now he hopes to earn himself a spot among the older wrestlers he wrestled along side Saturday as a Montana state champ.

Jore hosted two of the German wrestlers at his home over the weekend, and was pleased to say Ronan gave them a time to remember.

“They really like it here,” he said. “They said the best time they had in Montana was here.”