We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Friday's Parade of Athletes introduced the crowd to the Chinook Sugarbeeters who were led by wrestling managers Megan Pruttis, Talia Sharples and Hattie Niederegger carrying a poster of fallen teammate Jesse Dannels as they made their way into the Rimrock Auto Arena at Metra Park.
Junior Tate Niederegger won his second Montana State wrestling championship in Billings over the weekend winning the 138 pound weight class.
Senior Kenny Pruttis finished his career on top as champion of the 170 pond division.
Senior Derek Bell, 5th, 160 Lbs
Kevin Young, 4th, 205 Lbs
Jake Norby, 3rd, 152 Lbs
Chinook senior Kenny Pruttis, hand raised is now a Montana State wrestling champion at 182 pounds.
Chinook junior Tate Niederegger holds two fingers in the air as he is now a two time State Champion following his win at 138 pounds.
This quartet of Wildcat wrestlers completed a fine season on the mat at the All-Class State Wrestling Tournament in Billings. From left to right they are, senior Colten Stiffarm, junior Reece Hutton, freshman Kolten Bishop and senior T'Jay Allen.
The Chinook Sugarbeeters and Harlem Wildcats headed to Billings this past weekend to for the All-Class State Wrestling Tournament.
The Sugarbeeters easily won their second straight Class C State Championship scoring 100 points and finishing nearly 70 points in front of the runner up. The team had all five wrestlers earn All-State recognition and crowned two individual champions.
The wrestling community came together to support a Chinook team dealing with the sudden and tragic loss of a teammate and friend in senior Jesse Dannels.
The Chinook wrestling team their coaches, managers and family came together and wrested and cheered with their hearts as all five Sugarbeeter wrestlers found themselves on the podium with medals around their neck Saturday night.
Junior Tate Niederegger won his second state championship winning the 138 pound weight class this year finishing with a perfect 46-0 record.
Senior Kenny Pruttis won the final match of his wrestling career and claimed the 170 pound championship, finishing 41-5 on the season. Pruttis was on the podium at state for the second year in a row
Senior Jake Norby also won his final match by a 13-6 decision to finish third at 152 pounds. Norby also was on the podium a year ago.
Senior Kevin Young wrestled some epic bouts on his way to a fourth place finish at 205 pounds.
Senior Derek Bell also found himself in some thrilling down to the wire matches as he also won the final match of his career, a 3-2 decision that garnered him a fifth place finish at 160 pounds.
The Wildcats brought four wrestlers to state and all score points for the team.
Freshman Kolton Bishop wrestled at 126 pounds. Senior T'Jay Allen wrestled at 138 pounds going 1-2 in his matches with a win by pinfall.
Junior Reece Hutton wrestled very well at 205 pounds going 2-3 over the weekend. Senior Colten Stiffarm wrestled at 285 and finished the state tournament with a 2-3 record as well.
The team accomplished so much in Billings and on the mat and even more off the mat as their resilience was inspiring.
"We did what we wanted to do and that was win for Jesse, everybody wrestled great. Winning two in a row is great, we kind of expected to win it but to be able to do it for Jesse made it that much more special," said Niederegger.
"We went down there with one mission and we wrestled our hearts out, Jesse was in our hearts all last week and when we were at state and when we won state. I've been dreaming about since I was really young and it was a dream come true. We were both 2-2 during the season and I knew how to wrestle him, we had a game plan and it worked, it was a best of five and I won the last won," stated Pruttis.
"We all wrestled to our ability and we wrestled for Jesse," added Young. "In my quarterfinal match, I wrestled the No. 1 kid in the class and we sent it into overtime and right before the second round of it I said 'Jesse you gotta help me here bud, I need some help to get her done,' and I got it done by two points. I don't know if I could have beat him without Jesse there. I wanted to win one for Jesse, that was my goal."
"These kids have been through so much this week and the way the persevered and fought through so much is amazing, the amount of support we got throughout the state and the local community is amazing I couldn't be more proud of these boys under any circumstance, there really aren't a lot of words that can express what they did. I had to carry Tate off the mat, he was happy to win his second championship but he was just overwhelmed with grief, it was done. It was kind of wierd, how can that Sugarbeeter be the last man standing, the other matches were done and he was the last one standing. When he finished up they were done, the last man to get his arm raised that day was a Sugarbeeter," stated co-head coach Perry Miller.
Bell had similar thought of the weekend experience "Pretty amazing, we did it all for Jesse. He was in our hearts the whole time and we thought of him while we were wrestling, after we were wrestling and even if we lost the match we had a smile on our face and were thinking about Jesse. Ive been working for it since my freshman year, was hurt my sophomore year, went 2-2 last to year so to finish fifth and have a medal around my neck felt pretty good."
Co-head coach Adam Tilleman summed things up by saying, "It was tough weekend but a could weekend, they wrestled hard and had to work through a lot of stuff, one of the toughest things we had to do was work through the media, there was a lot of media down there covering in but the coaches, wow, the coaches and support from the other teams. We were at the hotel and they left us fruit baskets, Gatorade, a lot of the teams had 182 written on them it was amazing. Ruth and Bobby Dannels, the Reid boys all the family was their. It was neat to see them on the way home, they were laughing and joking.
