Skyview takes busman’s holiday at U-Hi

What some teams will do for a wrestling experience. In the case of Skyview High competitors from Billings, Mont., it meant spending nearly a day of the past four traveling on a charter bus.

The Falcons took the 10-hour drive west on Tuesday to compete in the two-day Best of the West team dual tournament in Pasco. On their way back home Friday, they stopped off at University for an 11 a.m. match before showering and reboarding the bus for the long drive home.

“My deal was when I took over as the head coach, the one thing I wanted to do was to make sure that our seniors got a trip every year,” said Skyview’s Rich Malia, now in his fourth season after 16 years as an assistant. “I just felt if they’ve been with our program that long, it would be nice to do something at Christmastime.”

The first year the team traveled to a tournament in Gillette, Wyo. The second year Skyview traveled to The Clash in Minnesota.

The past two seasons have been to Pasco – this year as a replacement for the Gillette tourney, which was canceled.

It made sense to Malia to find other competition if possible.

“I’ve known all the Owens for years and know (U-Hi coach) Donny has a tremendous program here,” said Malia, “so I just figured it would be good for our team to see somebody of this caliber. I really appreciate the chance to do this.”

Skyview, with only three seniors in the lineup, went 5-0 Wednesday and Thursday, beating Lewiston 31-27 for the Best of the West title.

They handled U-Hi 45-21, winning nine of 14 matches – six by pin – to complete the successful trip.

“I will just say this,” Malia said, “we’ve really improved the past week. We’ve just made some leaps. We’re pretty junior-loaded and have some good sophomores and freshmen, as well. It was a good way to go into the Christmas break.”

The Falcons, who have won six Montana state team championships, the last in 2005, stormed to a 30-8 lead. The closest the Titans came was to within 30-18.

U-Hi’s successes came from state-placing veterans and a precocious freshman. Frosh Dustin Johnson opened the match with a 13-10 win at 189 pounds.

The Titans trailed 24-3 before state finalists Anthony Rivera, wrestling at 125 pounds, and Brian Owen, up to 135, captured technical fall and pin victories. Owen was followed by state-placer Ryan Zumwalt’s major decision.

The score was back to 39-18 before state placer Danny Jordan won a tough 6-0 triumph on a couple of single leg takedowns and near-fall cradle in the afternoon’s next-to-last match at 160.

“They are a legitimately tough team,” said U-Hi coach Don Owen, “and my good wrestlers did a good job. But we wrestled very poorly. We did not wrestle anywhere close to what we’re capable of in my opinion.”

U-Hi (3-1 in the Greater Spokane League) is part of a five-team league title chase that is on hiatus until Jan. 3. East Valley (4-0), Mead and Ferris (both 5-1) and Central Valley (4-1) currently have the upper hand.