By: Logan Parvinen

The mining city played host to an AAU youth folkstyle wrestling event on Sunday, Feb. 5th.

The Mine Yard Dogs Wrestling club had 40 kids participating from all different ages and weight classes. 15 of those wrestlers came away with 1st place gold medals to add to their ever-growing collections.

Starting out in the Bantam 45A class is Reid LeProwse. Reid continues his streak of excellence with another gold medal after going 3-0 on the day with all wins coming via pinfall.

Elias McEwen led the way in the Bantam 50B class with two pinfall victories and a first-round bye. Elias, much like last week, is the first of four McEwens to run away with the gold.

Grant Ellingson of the Bantam 50C class would start his day with a hard-fought 13-9 decision victory. Grants’ next two matches would be pinfalls over Butte Wrestling Clubs’ Austin Hackney and Jaxson Smith.

Noah Hollamons dominated in the Bantam 60A class by going 3-0 with all wins coming via pinfall.

Eme Rauch is one of three girls who went home with the gold. After a hard-fought 8-2 decision victory, she won her next match by way of pinfall to win the gold in the girls’ Bantam 60 class.

Maddison Brown continues her dominance with a first-place victory in the Midget 55B class. Similar to Emes’ first match, Maddison started her event with a 6-0 decision victory. Maddison then won her next two matches by way of pinfall.

Bearick McEwen is the second McEwen on the list of gold medalists. After starting off with a couple of pinfall victories, Bearick clawed his way to a 6-0 decision victory over August Sutey of the Butte Wrestling Club. Bearick competed in the Midget 60B class.

Jax Grunhuvd is the first of three Grunhuvds to finish the evening with gold around his neck. Jax, who competed in the Midget 70B class started his day with a bye. Jax would win his second match via pinfall. Jax won the gold in an 11-10 battle against Kixton Vauthier of the Copperhead Wrestling Club.

Braelynn Schwartzmiller won the gold in the girls’ 70/75 class. Her two victories were from two quick pinfalls over Emma Lucier of the Copperhead Wrestling Program.

In the Novice 70A class, Paxton McEwen went 3-0 to win gold. Paxton’s first match was a 6-0 decision win. Paxton’s second match was won via pinfall. In the 1st place match, Paxton routed his way to a 21-6 tech fall.

Renzy LeProwse took first place in the Novice 80B class. Renzy won two of his three matches by tech fall with the third match ending in an 11-7 decision victory. All three of Renzys’ matches saw Renzy score at least 11 points.

Logan Grunhuvd proved why people with the name of Logan are just built differently. Logan swept through the Novice 85B class with all three of his victories coming by way of pinfall. Logan pinned all of his opponents in under one minute.

Remington Grunhuvd is our final Grunhuvd to finish with the gold. Similar to what happened in Idaho and Three Forks, Remington proved why he is a top gun. After two quick pinfall victories, Remy faced fellow Mine Yard Dog David Honer in the 1st place match. Remy won via tech fall to finish 1st in the Schoolboy 85 class.

Reveles was the fourth and final McEwen to win gold. After a bye in the first round and a 4-2 decision victory, Reveles pinned Isaac Zell of the Butte Wrestling Club to win the Schoolboy 100 class.

Conner Espelin, brother of state qualifier Colter Espelin, took 1st place in the Schoolboy 115 class. Conners would win his first two matches by way of 15-0 tech falls. In the championship match, Conner would defeat Treigh Hollow of the Butte Wrestling Club via pinfall.

Mine Yard Dogs saw a total of 28 wrestlers score more than 10 team points.