Houle takes state crown, fall record

Wildcat senior wrestler Kelly Houle set the school record for falls in a season, pinning all four opponents at the state A wrestling tournament last week.

Houle, wrestling at 215, pinned Brennan Fisher of Frenchtown in 2:29 to take the Class A crown with his 32nd pin of the year. That bests Caleb Schaeffer's previous school record of 31 pins in 2000.

Houle also had pins against Kollon Lodge of Havre, Austin Boucher of Laurel and Paul Donaldson of Hamilton at state.

"He's solid on top, that's his strong point," coach Jessie Schaeffer said. That might be an understatement. Of the 41 matches Houle wrestled this season, only nine weren't by fall. His record this season was 39-2.

The wrestler said his strategy was simple.

"I stayed offensive," he said. "That's what my coaches wanted me to do … you just have to have a mentality that you're going to turn people."

The wrestler is a great kid off the mat, but admittedly, his demeanor changes on it.

"You have to be mean," he said.

Houle said he's been wrestling since he was four.

"I'd like to thank my dad (Kelly Sr.), my mom (Christy) and my grandma (Cheryl Cheff) and grandpa (Buck Cheff)," he said.

He's signed with Montana Western to play football in the fall.

Houle was lone champion for the Cats, who took 14th as a team. The Cats had three other wrestlers place. Sal Bacarro took fifth at 112, Justin Whitman was fifth at 119 and brother Shawn took sixth at 140.

Both Baccaro and Whitman had tough semifinal matches, Schaeffer said.

"The scores didn't show how hard they wrestled," he said.

Baccaro and Justin went 3-2 for the tournament and Shawn was 2-3.

Baccaro pinned Tyler DeBuse of Belgrade in his final match and Justin beat Zachary Smith of Havre 5-0 . Shawn was pinned by Jayme Kelly of Sidney in the fifth-sixth place match

The outlook is bright for next season, with 12 sophomores coming back and upwards of 18 freshmen trying out.

"As a coach, that's exciting," Schaeffer said.