Throwdowns in Boys' Wrestling

This season the Polson Boys’ Wrestling started with a young team, primarily consisting of sophomores and juniors. Their members focused on fostering active and mentally focused students, as the Head Coach, Eric Huffine, stated: “ wrestling is important to develop servant leaders in life and build strong culture.” His assistant coach, Keio Salmonson, supported that, saying, “One key to good wrestling is head up, chest up, just like in life.” 

While the team is indeed smaller compared to last year, forming a strong community is still a large part of the team’s life and goals. From their camaraderie to their fun matches, the team has come to improve and grow both in the ring and out of it. As Durai Mahkuk, the only senior on the team, stated, he would “never give up.” Mahkuk hopes to place in divisionals, and continue wrestling if a viable opportunity approaches him in college. Mahkuk has seen his team become both more communicative and improve in moral stature. He later reflected how his team recently began to film their matches and then make comments and reviews on their practices to better improve their efforts. 

Mahkuk’s fellow teammate, Wardell, shares similar goals. Now, Wardell focuses on wrestling culture, such as their pre-match huddles and uplifting teammates before a match. Wardell says the team’s overall goal is for “everyone to work together and put all they have in each match.” From their nicknames to playful jeers and matches against their rivals, the team is a community Wardell enjoys. Coach Huffine later added that he and the other coaches “Wouldn’t ask them to do anything we wouldn’t be willing to do,” showing one way the coaches build up their players. Mandy Ramesar, an assistant coach of the team, stated how the sport is as much of a mental sport as a physical one, attributing a wrestler’s  mental state to over 90% of their performance in the ring. 

Polson’s first big home meet, the Owen Invitational, saw Wyatt Moldenhauer take fourth place in the 110 pound bracket, while the team had sixteen pins. Moldenhauer scored 16.0 team points, Ryatt Maley 8.0 points, Gerado Alverez 7.0 points, Durai Mahkuk 6.0 points, Damien Kato 6.0 points, Logan Clairmont 6.0 points, Corben Carlson 4.0 points, Gabriel Housten 4.0 points, and Jaidon Mahkuk 4.0 team points. 

On January 7, the team braved the cold roads and headed to Browning for the  Western A Divisionals, where the boys’ team took 12th place. Six boys placed to go to state: Corben               Carlson, Ryatt Maley, Shawn Stump,  Wyatt Moldenhauer, Sheamis Cobb, and Gerardo Alvarez. Alvarez, who took 5th in the 118 bracket, says that the divisional meet was tough, but he pushed through the challenges by “just wrestling.” His toughest opponent, from Corvallis, was his second-to-last match and was the hardest all weekend. Alvarez feels a little nervous going into state, but he says, “I’ve made it as far as I wanted to go, so I just keep telling myself to wrestle as hard as I can.”

At the state tournament, which took place February 13-15, the boys’ team saw a “great chance to gain experience,” said Sean Dellwo, PHS’s athletic director. The team scored 5.5 points in the team rankings. Moldenhaur earned 2.5 points for his team in the first round, and Maley earned 3.0 points in the second round after losing his match in his first round.