(Editor's note: MTN Sports is featuring a Midland Roundtable Athlete of the Year finalist nightly leading into this year's awards banquet Wednesday, May 15, at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. Ten graduating seniors (five boys, five girls) in the Billings area are nominated annually by coaches and activities directors before Roundtable members, a group of longtime sports enthusiasts in Billings, vote on one male and one female winner. In rare instances, the award has been shared.)
BILLINGS — Deuces are wild for Billings Senior’s Torie Jamieson. Two varsity letters and two team state titles in wrestling and two Class AA track and field state championships in the discus.
She’s put a lot of work into earning those titles.
“They’re kind of equal to me, but wrestling is a little bit sweeter to me just because you have all the people to celebrate with,” Jamieson said.
Funny story about wrestling: Her career didn’t exist two years ago until she was coming off shoulder surgery when Dr. (Steven) Klepps recommended she give it a shot. Her coach at Senior? Klepps’ son Charlie, who shared this Midland Roundtable Athlete of the Year award six years ago before wrestling at Iowa State.
Jamieson took the leap of faith and even developed a favorite move, which she demonstrated to MTN Sports back in January.
“So, a Hi-C, you kind of go down to your knee — it stands for 'high crotch' — you kind of stick your arm up in their leg then double off and kind of tackle them,” she said while enacting the move.
Jamieson is pretty impressive at quick tutorials. We recently asked her for another to master the discus throw.
“You really want to keep this arm relaxed," she explained while extending her right (throwing) arm. "If you start to tense up it gets nice and short, and you sort of want to T-Rex it.
"You want to be as long as you can which, I’m kind of at a disadvantage. I’m 5-foot-5 … I mean, looking at all these other (Roundtable) nominees, I’m just looking up at them. It’s a little intimidating.”
Jamieson is certainly not intimidated in the discus circle. She recently annihilated the Roundtable’s Top 10 meet record by almost four feet, throwing 149-1. She’s also on the verge of a State AA title three-peat.
Later this summer, Jamieson heads to Ithaca, New York, and the Ivy League where she plans to throw for Cornell on the way to becoming a pediatrician. She'll graduate among tops in her class with 4.6 GPA, leading us to believe — naturally — that she’s extremely organized from her room to her car.
“No, no … no, which is kind of surprising," she admitted with a slight smile. "Everyone sees me and they’re like, you get good grades so you should be organized. But my room and my car are a mess … big mess.”
It’s imaginable that if Jamieson had the time, she could whip up a quick tutorial on how to keep both spotless.
Midland Roundtable Athlete of the Year
2024 Female finalists: Kourtney Grossman (West), Halle Haber (West), Torie Jamieson (Senior), Piper Jette (Senior), Breanna Williams (Skyview).
2024 Male finalists: Maclain Burckley (Senior), Tyce Casterline (Lockwood), Keyan Hernandez (West), Kyler Northrop (Central), Braden Zimmer (West).
