Viking wrestlers earn wins at State A

Bigfork's Holland Jantzen picked up a pair on wins in the State A wrestling meet last weekend in Billings.

The 285-pounder opened the tournament as the Western A No. 3 seed with a pin against Hardin's Shawn Wilson at 4:14. The second round put Jantzen against the Eastern A No. 2 seed Thor Fulgham, who won with a pin at 3:38. 

On the other side of the bracket, Jantzen captured a 7-0 decision over the west's No. 6 seed Kolton McCoy, before getting knocked out of the tournament against the east's No. 4 Trey Daly.

Bigfork's Callen Ballard picked up a win in the 103-pound bracket. Ballard entered the meet as the west's No. 5 seed. After getting pinned in the opening round, Ballard rebounded with a decisive 7-4 decision over the east's No. 8 seed Benson Judd.

In an upset at 126 pounds, Bigfork's No. 8 seed Bradley Wood earned a 19-3 technical fall over Ronan's No. 4 seed Aiden Schall.

As a team, the Vikings tallied 8.5 points to finish 21st out of 25 teams.

The Eastern A teams dominated, with Sidney/Fairview taking the championship with 235 points, ahead of Hardin's 232 points. Laurel took third with 196 points. 

The top Western A team was Frenchtown in seventh place.

IN THE girls tournament, Bigfork wrestler Aurora Rice made a nice run through the bracket.

The 155-pounder rebounded from her opening loss to capture two impressive wins. Rice scored a 13-8 decision over Libby's Meghan Connelley, then eked out a narrow 6-5 decision over Billings Senior High School's Luisa Rivera-Ros. She eventually went down in a battle with Hamilton's Marley Olson.

Shannon Woll represented the Valkyries at 115 pounds

The Valkyries finished with 3 points as a team to place 21st out of 23 teams in Class A.

Miles City won the Girls A title with 148 points, followed by Laurel in second and Ronan in third.