CASCADE - Cole Rice had a good start to his title 

defense season, pinning three opponents and winning the 152-pound

division at the Cascade Badgers Invitational last weekend.

CASCADE - Cole Rice had a good start to his title

defense season, pinning three opponents and winning the 152-pound division at the Cascade Badgers Invitational last weekend.

"I felt the team performed really well this weekend," Arlee head wrestling coach Ken Hill said. "We only entered seven guys in the varsity tournament and placed three of them in the top four. We still have some work to do, but the season is young and we have already seen some good things from the athletes."

Rice was also named the most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament, pinning Aaron Carpenter of Great Falls in 1:13 his first match, then pinning Kolter Beneitone of Florence 3:26 into the semi-final match.

That set up a rematch with last year's state championship match opponent, Shay Christiansen of Townsend. Rice pinned him 4:00 into the match to take the tournament championship.

"Cole had a really good weekend, pinning all of his

opponents on the way to the championship," Hill said. "He just does everything right, and when he makes a mistake, he is smart enough to know when to bail out and start over."

Junior 171-pounder Clayton Trimble took second in his weight class pinning wrestlers from Harlem, Butte and Boulder to get to the championship match. Adam Debruycker defeated Trimble for first.

Sophomore Austin Rubel took fourth place in 119-pound weight class after losing his first match but winning the next four to reach the consolation final match. In that, he lost to Logan Schwope of Townsend 9-2.

Other performances by Arlee included junior Zach Tameler winning three matches in the 140-pound class but he didn't make it to the podium.

"A number of coaches at the tournament were very impressed with Zach's wrestling ability and commented about his strength and improvements since the last time they saw him wrestle," Hill said.

Another three-match winner was Carter Clinkenbeard at 152 pounds, but like Tameler, didn't medal.

Leif Rova won two matches at 160 pounds.

"The competition was good for a first tournament of the year," Hill said. "Some of the athletes there were state champions and state placers from last year and years past. We like to go to Cascade because we get to see those team from the Southern and Northern B-C."

Freshman Logan Potts wrestled in the junior varsity tournament at 215-pounds and took fourth place. The team will host an Arlee dual tonight, Dec. 9.

Badger Invitational team scores

Cascade-Simms - 186.5

Choteau - 176

Townsend - 145

Greats Falls JV - 143

Florence - 118

Fairfield - 107

Harlem - 84.5

Arlee - 73.5

Darby - 69

Fort Benton -54

Helena High JV - 52

Deer Lodge - 52

Jefferson - 44

CMR JV - 43

Noxon - 39

Butte High JV - 29

Belt - 28

Drummond - 22

Whitehall - 11.5