Area grapplers look to advance to state

Across the state of Montana, it's divisional wrestling weekend and for many of the grapplers along the Hi-Line, that means heading to Shelby for the Northern B-C Divisional tournament.

The tournament, which features teams from the Hi-Line to Great Falls and beyond, will be hosted at Shelby High School and will get underway in the morning. Local teams that will be in action include Chinook, Harlem, Hays-Lodge Pole and Chester-Joplin-Inverness.

Chinook is the prominent local team, as the Sugarbeeters are the two-time defending Class C state champions. The Beeters, who crowned two individual champions and placed five total at state wrestling, returned just one of those individuals and that was Tate Niederegger.

Niederegger is a three-time finalist at the Class C state wrestling tournament and a two-time individual champion. He will go for his fourth consecutive title at the Northern B-C Divisional this weekend in the 145-pound weight class.

While Niederegger is the headliner for the Beeters, Chinook head coach Perry Miller will have a bunch of others in action led by J.J. Colby and Ross Reed, who are each coming off solid finishes in the Malta Invitational last week. The Beeters will also bring Colton Liddle, J.T Hauer, Kurtis Hamilton, Garrett Lowham and Reubin Swenson.

Harlem will also bring some quality wrestlers to the meet in Reece Hutton and Curtis Humphreys, who will wrestle at 205 pounds and in the heavyweight class, respectively. The top wrestler for CJI will be Kobe Tran. Of course another top wrestler in attendance will be Cut Bank's own Justin Pfeifer, who is a 37-0 heavyweight and recently committed to play football at Montana State University-Northern.

The action will start in Sheby at 10 a.m. The semifinals are scheduled for 1 p.m., with the finals to follow approximately at 3 p.m.