| Six
wrestlers qualify for State
All six Prairie wrestlers competing at the District I-II wrestling tournament at Grangeville Saturday, Feb. 21 qualified for the state tournament. Brandon Poxleitner at 135 lbs., James Jackson at 145 lbs., Tyrell Langston at 160 lbs. and Chance Ratcliff at 215 lbs. all finished second at District while Philip Smakman at 130 lbs. and Mitchell Jungert at 285 lbs. placed third. The top 3 in each weight class advanced to state. 
At 130 lbs. Smakman got a lot of help from the bracket as there were only 3 wrestlers entered. Smakman lost his only match of the tournament to Logan Courtney of Kootenai, who wound up second. Smakman held his own, trailing just 7-9 on the scoreboard when he made a mistake and got pinned in the third period at the 4:25.3 mark. At 135 lbs. Poxleitner got a first round bye then went up against Anthony Small from Nezperce. Small took the early advantage leading 0-2 after a takedown in the first period and 3-6 in the second period before Poxleitner got the reversal and the pin at the 3:21.5 mark of the match to advance to the championship round. In the championship match Poxleitner faced Paul Raymond of Kamiah and fell behind 0-2 on a first period takedown and trailed 0-5 after 2 periods. He scored a reversal in the third period but couldn’t get Raymond turned and wound up losing 2-5. At 145 lbs. Jackson faced Tyler Zumwalt of Grangeville. He took a 2-0 lead on a takedown and led 4-0 at the end of the first period after a 2-point near fall. He scored another takedown in the second period to lead 6-0 and then scored the pin in 3:33.2. In the championship round he faced Slade Jacobs of Kamiah in what turned into a high scoring match. Jackson hasn’t been able to beat Jacobs but took a 10-7 lead in the second period. Jacobs, who had a takedown move that Jackson couldn’t seem to ward off starting scoring a takedown for 2, letting Jackson go for 1 and so on until he built a 15-18 win. At 160 lbs., Langston faced Cody Brown of Potlatch and scored a takedown and near fall in the first period for a 5-0 lead. He started the second period in the up position and Brown got loose for an escape but Langston scored another takedown for a 7-1 lead. Brown got loose again for an escape to make it 7-2 at the end of the second period. Langston started the third period in the down position and scored a reversal for a 9-2 lead. Brown scored an escape but Langston took him down again to make it 11-3 and that was the final score. In the championship match he faced Les Wright of Kamiah. It was a scoreless first period and Langston chose the down position to start the second period. Wright was able to get his shoulders turned long enough for a 2-point near fall and that’s where the score stood at the end of the second period. Langston started the third period in the up position and Wright was able to score a reversal and then ride out the match for the 0-4 win. At 215 lbs. Chance Ratcliff, like Smakman, had already qualified for state as there were only 3 in the bracket. He faced James Oatman in his opening match and scored a takedown and near fall in the first period for a 5-0 lead. He started down in the second period and scored a reversal for a 7-0 lead that stood up to the end of the period. He started in the up position in the third and scored near falls twice before finally scoring the pin with less than 30 seconds left in the match at the 5:32.7 mark to advance to the championship match. There he faced Greg Holcomb of Grangeville who dominated the match from the start rolling to a 4-16 win. At 285 lbs. Mitchell Jungert faced Ty Beare of Kootenai. He fell behind on a takedown but scored an escape to trail just 1-2 at the end of the first period. Beare scored another takedown in the second period for a 1-4 lead. Beare scored an escape and another takedown in the third period for the final 1-7 score. In the third place match Jungert needed to win to qualify for state. He faced Brandon Wilburn of Wallace and took the lead on a takedown. Wilburn scored the escape to make it 2-1 at the end of the first period. Jungert started in the up position in the second period and Wilburn was able to score another escape to tie the match. Jungert then scored another takedown and went on to pin Wilburn 2:38 into the match to take third and clinch a spot at state. This is the first time Prairie has ever qualified all their wrestlers for state. Prairie's first round matchups at State Wrestling action starts at 10 a.m. Mountain Time at the State Wrestling Tournament this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28 at Holt Arena in Pocatello. At 130 lbs. Philip Smakman (11-19) will face #1 seed Ty Peck of Aberdeen (39-5). At 135 lbs. Brandon Poxleitner (18-9) will open against Tate Whitworth of Challis (30-12). At 145 lbs. James Jackson (15-9) will face the #4 seeded Jaime Garcia of New Plymouth (25-10). At 160 lbs. Tyrell Langston (24-12) will face Jesse Harrigfeld of North Fremont (27-14). At 215 lbs. Chance Ratcliff (14-14) will face Seth Gaskins of New Plymouth (29-12). At 285 lbs. Mitch Jungert (10-13) faces #1 seed Sylas Gaskins of New Plymouth (31-11). The 103-140 lb. matches are scheduled for 10-11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 27 with the 145-285 lb. matches set for 11:30-1 p.m. Action continues at 2 p.m. with the first round of loser-out matches. At 4 p.m. the quarterfinal matches will start. At 6 p.m. will be the second round of loser out matches. On Saturday, Feb. 28 another round of consolation loser-out matches are scheduled. Anyone making it past this round is guaranteed a medal. At 11 a.m. are the semi-final matches. At 1 p.m. the consolation semi-final matches will start. At 3 p.m. the consolation finals and 5th-6th place matches will start. At 5:30 p.m. will be the parade of athletes followed by the championship matches. Full brackets may be found at either idhsaa.org or idahowrestling.com. PIRATES WRESTLING SCHEDULE FOR 2008-09 FEBRUARY |
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