MT AAU/USAW State Folkstyle Championships

Alyssa and Hayden competed in Great Falls this weekend. Alyssa battled harder than ever. She ended up 2-2 in the tournament. Alyssa's two wins were very tight matches and she controlled the bouts. Her first loss, she scored a take down early in the match and controlled her opponent in the first period. She was up 2-0 going into the 2nd. In the second Alyssa started on top and again controlled him up until her opponent scored with a reversal late in the 2nd period. With about 15 seconds left he came out front and locked in a cement job and pinned Alyssa with 1 second on the clock. Her second loss, 0-0 going into the 2nd period. He chose bottom. Alyssa controlled her opponent the whole 2nd period and did not allow him to score. It was 0-0 going into the 3rd and Alyssa chose bottom. In the 3rd Alyssa managed to score with an escape with 20 secs on the clock to take the lead 1-0. With 11 seconds left Alyssa went for a take down and drove him out of bounds. They had to start back in the center, both up, Alyssa leading 1-0. Her opponent dove in for a shot with about 4 seconds left, Alyssa fought hard. I saw the towel launched into the air as the clock hit 0:00. The ref awarded the kid 2 for the take down. I know the ref made a mistake. It cost Alyssa the match. This win would have locked Alyssa in for a medal. After the match Alyssa said she actually released the kid and stopped trying to defend because the towel came in. Most of the people in the crowd saw that the ref made a bad call. She wrestled tough. WATCH OUT!

Hayden wrestled tough as well. He pinned his first kids. Almost lost his second match but this time he won 5-4. He was losing 2-4 with 10 seconds left. Hayden was on top. He hit what we call "thunder" and scored a near fall (3pts) to take the lead with about 3seconds left to win the match 5-4. He won his 3rd match 7-2. Hayden was down 0-2 and came back from behind to win that one. He pinned his opponent in his 4th match. Hayden won his finals match 11-1. Hayden finished the tournament 5-0 with 2 pins. Hayden is the MT AAU/USAW State Champion.