BILLINGS — Last year, Laurel won its first Class A boys wrestling title in 13 years. But it didn’t come without several near-misses in the preceding years.
As coach Ted Hill has pointed more than once, the Locomotives missed out on hardware by as little as a half-point in prior seasons. This year, Laurel is out to a 22-point lead — 174.5 to 152.5 — over stalwart Sidney in the race for the Class A team trophy at the state wrestling tournament.
The Locomotives, seeking a second straight crown, are looking to capture every point they can get on Saturday, either in the championship finals or the all-important wrestlebacks.
Results: 2025 Class A boys state wrestling - Day 2
“We’ve got a bunch of vampires coming to the blood round tomorrow,” Hill said Friday after four of his Locomotives won semifinal matches at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark. “I think we have eight or nine dudes floating around that big round tomorrow morning. And so that’s a big make-or-break round.”
Laurel’s four entrants into Saturday’s finals are Konner Heath at 118, Elijah Nose at 132, Logan Knaub at 157 and Holden Hoiness at 165. But as Hill indicated there are still plenty of points to be had.
Sidney, to its credit, has three in the finals — Aaron Schmitz at 138, Reece Graves at 144 and Thor Fulgham at 215. The Eagles, winners of 13 championships, are looking to get back to the top of Class A after a two-year hiatus.
Among those giving Sidney a lift is Graves, a senior trying to reach the championship pedestal for the third time after falling short a year ago. Graves had been on track to be a four-time champion like his older brother Aden but was stricken with the flu last year and took fourth.
Graves will face Matthew Reske of Glendive on Saturday.
“I got sick,” Graves recounted of last season with a what-can-you-do tone. “But it’s OK. I don’t really look back on it that much. I don’t reminisce on it. Just using it as a little bit of fuel.”
Elsewhere in Class A, the championship chase of Hardin’s Cale Nedens at 150 pounds is among the more interesting storylines. Nedens’ father, Chris, won four state titles with the Bulldogs from 1998-2001, becoming just the 11th of the now-41 to accomplish the feat.
Nedens, a sophomore, finished second as an eighth grader and took third last year. He will face returning champion Tahj Wells of Browning on Saturday in title round.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 4; that’s when I started,” said Nedens, whose team is in third place with 126.5 points. “I’ve always loved it. I’ve always looked up at my dad.
“(Wells is) a super-tough kid. I have a lot of respect for him. I just have to wrestle my match.”
Friday was a watershed day for Billings Central, which broke a 12-year finals drought by pushing two boys into the Class A championship round. (The Rams’ Emma Hernandez also made the finals in the girls competition, a first for the school.)
Kaius Rivera at 110 knocked off Sidney’s Tyson Syth, a returning champion, in the semis while older brother Aramis Rivera is in the 118 finals. They are the Rams’ first championship entrants since George Smith won the program’s most recent title in 2013.
The other finalists are:
Jesse Grossman of Hardin and William Alves of Lockwood at 103, Preston Johnson of Lewistown at 110, Brody Ketterling of Lockwood and Pita Fish of Browning at 126, Ridge Cote of Ronan at 132, Dalton Hinebauch of Lockwood at 138, Dylan Delorme of Columbia Falls at 157, Koda King of Ronan at 165, Jaden Silha of Glendive and Deegan Tvedt of Miles City at 175, Bruno Pallone of Hardin and Rowdy Crump of Columbia Falls at 190, Gage Chapman of Havre at 215, and Cody Kills On Top of Hardin and Tommy Lewis of Havre at heavyweight.
Lockwood’s Hinebauch, along with Browning’s Wells, is seeking a consecutive title. Lockwood’s Ketterling, like Sidney’s Graves, is also looking to get back atop the podium after a falling short last year.
