Sidney Eagle wrestling meet to kick off high school season

The Sidney Eagle Dual Tournament will begin Friday at 8:30 a.m. and will conclude at approximately 4 p.m. that afternoon at Sidney High School.

When the duals conclude and the team champion is crowned, the Sidney Eagle Invitational will begin shortly after at approximately 5:30 p.m. Friday at Sidney High. Day 1 of the tourney will end at approximately 8:30 p.m. Friday.

The individual tourney will pick back up at 9 a.m. Saturday morning with the finals at approximately 5 p.m.

There will also be matches held on Friday morning at Central Elementary School in Sidney, approximately two blocks from the high school in a brand new gym said longtime Eagles coach Guy Melby. The matches at Central will consist of round robin action for smaller teams, and JV squads.

For the individual tournament there will be brackets for boys varsity, boys JV and girls competitors.

On Friday during the boys duals tournament, the girls wrestlers will compete in a round-robin as most of the girls teams competing don't have a dual lineup as girls wrestling enters its third season as a sanctioned sport in the state. However, Melby said Miles City and Rapid City Central (South Dakota) might have enough girls to dual and if they do the teams would dual at Sidney High.

Eight states represented

Overall, there will be 27 teams from eight different states competing in Sidney.

Teams entered in the individual tourney are: Adams City (Colorado), Baker, Beulah-Hazen (North Dakota), Broadus, Circle, Colstrip, Custer-Hysham, Dickinson (North Dakota), Forsyth, Glasgow, Glendive, Hardin, Huntley Project, Lake Stevens (Washington), Laurel, Lockwood, Miles City, Minot (North Dakota), Oak Harbor (Ohio), Poplar, Post Falls (Idaho), Poway (California), Rapid City Central (South Dakota), Sidney, Watford City (North Dakota), Williston (North Dakota), and Wolf Point.

Melby said Poway was ranked third in the nation. While Poway has competed in the tourney once before, Melby said Adams City and Beulah-Hazen are new to the field. Oak Harbor will be competing at the event for the second time.

“There are teams that can’t come every year, they come every other year or every third year,” Melby explained. “Most of these guys I’ve met at camps or in Florida at the national duals and we get to talking and I tell them about our tournament and they are interested, so it is good.”

Teams that will be competing in the duals tourney Friday at Sidney High School are: Poway, Post Falls, Huntley Project, Sidney, Adams City, Miles City, Oak Harbor, Laurel, Rapid City Central, Williston, Lake Stevens, Dickinson, Lockwood, Minot, Glasgow and Watford City.

Sidney is the five-time defending Montana State A boys champion. Huntley Project is the defending Class B boys titlist. Circle has won the past five State C boys titles.

Miles City placed third in the boys State A team race last year, while Laurel was a half-point back in fourth.

Glasgow was fourth in the final Class B boys team standings at state last February and Colstrip was sixth.

Melby said he expects a hard-fought two days of competition.

“The out-of-state teams coming are good, or we wouldn’t invite them,” Melby said. “We take pride in traveling all over the state and the United States to find competition and now is our chance to bring some of that in here and have them come here instead of us traveling all the time. It will be tough.”

This year’s Eagles

The Eagles have 33 boys competing this year and five girls, which is two more girls than last season.

Owen Lonski won his third State A title for Sidney last year and is aiming to become Sidney’s fourth four-time champion this season. Lonski would join Jesse Obergfell (2004-07), Gresh Jones (2012-15) and Aden Graves (2019-22) if he captures a fourth individual state championship at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark come February.

In 2020, Lonski was state champion at 103 pounds. In 2021, he won the bracket at 113 pounds and last year Lonski earned the 126-pound crown. Lonski is wrestling at 138 pounds this year.

“He’s focused and ready to go and champing at the bit,” said Melby of Lonski. “He’s been putting time in the weight room and wrestling room. He’s ready.”

Sidney has several other state placers as the boys try to add another championship trophy to their collection.

Junior Gordon Knapp (103) pounds has placed third two years in a row at 103 pounds for the Eagles. Sophomore Reece Graves (132) was the state champion at 113 pounds last year. Senior Zander Dean (152) was second as a freshman at 113 pounds and then first at state both as a sophomore at 126 and a junior at 145. Senior Kaden Wise (160) was sixth last year at 132 and fourth at 103 in 2020. Senior Ben Carlsen (132) was fifth last season at 126.

“It’s going to be fun. The practice has started. This year is just a little different, we will be really, really young and scrappy,” said Melby. “I’m just anxious to see how much these guys develop and how much better they’ll be from this tournament to February. It will be fun to get back into the wrestling part of it. It seems like it has been a long time since February last year. We are ready to get some competition in.”

Melby said that while this year’s team is a younger bunch, they are capable of bringing home the 14th state title of his tenure in Sidney.

“It’s absolutely our goal (a state title). Our biggest thing right now is we want to keep five in a row going and make it six. But more important right now is progress every day,” said Melby. “We never take a step back and always want progress. We have a bunch of hard workers. I know that.”

For the Eagles girls, junior Amaiya Kirn (126 or 132) is a two-time state champion. Kirn won the 126-pound title at the inaugural state girls wrestling tournament at Lockwood High School in 2021. Kirn defended her 126-pound title last February at the Metra.