On Thursday, March 9, the Little Guy Wrestling mixer was held in the Plains High School gym. Junior high students from several western Montana schools (Plains, Hot Springs, Ronan, Libby, and Superior) were involved in wrestling matches on two mats. Each individual round of the match lasted one minute, 30 seconds with an “unofficial” score being kept on the time clocks at the opposite ends of the gym. Parents, coaches, friends, and other wrestlers were on hand to cheer, give support, and provide helpful suggestions to the wrestlers before, during, and after they had wrestled.

“This is a mixer, we aren’t keeping official scores. This gives the junior high students a chance to wrestle more tonight,” Lisa Brown, who is the President of the Wildhorse Little Guy Wrestling, stated,

Some matches appeared to be very close, and a few matches appeared to be going in favor of one wrestler.

The “unofficial” points on the clock showed James Kenelke of Ronan to be ahead with seven points, while his opponent, Brady Shrenk from Plains/Hot Springs team, had one point. The coach and his friends and peers were giving Shrenk directions from the side of the mat. When the second round began, it appeared that Kenelke was going to win with the seven points to one. Shrenk quickly made a move that took his opponent to the mat and within a matter of ten to fifteen seconds, the shoulders of Kenelke were pinned to the mat and the referee hit the mat and blew the whistle to stop the wrestlers. Shrenk had come back from being behind by six “unofficial” points and had won.

The match between Tim Gallerneau from Superior and Adam Aguillera from Plains/Hot Springs was a very quick one. Gallerneau had the height, speed, and strength advantages to soundly and quickly pin Aguillera within the first 50 seconds.

There will be more Wildhorse Little Guy Wrestling Friday, March 17 at the Inter-Valley Tournament in Plains. At this time, the tournament is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. in the Plains High School Gym. On Saturday, March 18, at 9 a.m. the wrestling will start for the Beginners, Novice, and Middles in the Plains High School gym.