GREAT FALLS — With the state wrestling tournament starting up Thursday in Billings, Great Falls CMR is gearing up for what it thinks should be an overall quality performance on Montana's biggest stage.
"I'm very confident," senior Landon De La Garza said Tuesday. "I've been doing pretty good these last few weeks, and I feel like as a team we're doing really good now."
"I'm super excited going in to this weekend," sophomore Madalyn Deiter said. "I'm ready to go take a state title."
"I think we got a good shot at placing a lot of guys, putting a lot of guys in the finals," freshman Madden Jensen said. "And just having a lot of fun."
"I see a lot of placers in our team," sophomore Teagan Dixon said. "We have a lot of depth and just have a good team put together. So I'm really glad, and pretty excited to see how we do."
De La Garza, Deiter, Jensen and Dixon have been wrestlers CMR can rely on to compete no matter the match.
For Deiter — who has only lost once this season — she was a runner-up in her weight class last winter, and said she feels very confident she'll be bringing home the title this time.
"Knowing that I've wrestled almost all the top people in my bracket — and beaten all of them — makes my confidence pretty high knowing that I can definitely win this," Deiter said.
The boys are coming off an impressive performance at the Eastern AA divisional. With the positive strides that have been shown as of late, De La Garza, Jensen and Dixon all expressed how excited they are to keep that momentum rolling in to the state tournament.
"It's given us a lot of momentum to go in to this week," De La Garza said. "They're all proud of themselves and that's good ... having a positive attitude going in to the state tournament, it's always the best."
"I want to win state, I want to be a state champ right now," Jensen said. "I don't want to look down the road ... because that just leaves room for error. So I want to do it right now, I want to make the finals. I want to be right there."
"We'll see how we do this year, but I'm just really excited to see how I do," Dixon said. "I really do want to work towards getting on top of the podium."
You can follow the Rustlers, as well all other state wrestling content throughout the weekend here on montanasports.com.
First and second rounds of the state tournament begin at 4 p.m. Thursday at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark.
