Butte Central’s wrestling team is looking less like a small group of talented wrestlers and more like an honest to Goodness team.

And though the Maroons still have a ways to go before they’ll be competitive team-wise, the seven wrestlers who took the mats at Thursday’s mixer at Butte Central’s MAC showed their Class A competition they’re for real.

The Maroons hosted Havre, Livingston, Anaconda, Hamilton and defending State Class A team champion Corvallis in a two-mat, two-round mixer that got plenty of mat time for most of the wrestlers in attendance.

Butte Central has six sophomores and a freshman out for the team, as well as another who will join the ranks once he completes the requisite 10 preseason practices.

“We’ve got some building blocks,” Butte Central head coach Robin Moodry said after the competition. “They all went out and got after it, and they’re wrestling hard for the beginning of the season.”

The Maroons got twin wins from three of their “veterans,” as 98-pound Clay Stillwagon, 135-pound Zach Hart and 140-pound Keighton Svejkovsky showcased excellent skills and conditioning. Also, 105-pound Bryce Noctor went 1-1 on the night. That foursome of sophomores also earned a trip to the All-Class State Wrestling tourney last spring as freshmen, where Stillwagon took fourth and Hart took sixth.

“I thought we wrestled a lot better than we did last week in Havre,” Moodry observed. “We’ve still got a lot of room for improvement, but overall I thought we wrestled some good matches.”

Stillwagon got it all started at 98, when he took James Daffin of Corvallis to the mat quickly with a well shot double. Stillwagon ran a quick half Nelson and the match was over 31 seconds in, thanks to the pin. Stillwagon later wrestled in one of the better technical matches of the evening, as he outpointed Havre’s Keegan Kenneally 5-2. Stillwagon surrendered the first takedown, as Kenneally picked a knee and swithced to a double, but the Maroon scored a quick reversal, then collected a takedown in the second period and an escape in the third for the 5-2 win.

Noctor came out strong in his opener against Corvallis’ Paul Allsop, scoring the first takedown, but the Devil got two of his own during the six-minute match and came away with a 6-3 win. Noctor later made short work of Hamilton’s Grant Bess, pinning him in 27 seconds.

Freshman Sean Cooney scored first in both of his matches, but had trouble breathing and suffered pins in both contests. Cooney looked good on his feet, however, and should be dangerous for the Maroons.

Hart won both of his matches by pin, the first in 2:35 and the second in 1:16, as his quickness and intensity outmatched both of his opponents.

Svejkovsky also won both matches by pin. An aggressive approach paid off in a second-period pin of Riley Jessup of Corvallis, then Svejkovsky did some takedown work with Anaconda’s Brady Sturm before posting the pin in little over a minute.

Neither of Central’s 189-pounders picked up a win Thursday, but both Ben Holt and Chance Standish showed promise for the future – both the remainder of this season as well as their junior and senior years.

“We got a lot of matches and a lot of match time,” Moodry said. “We’ll get as many matches as we can get, then practice, practice practice. Then we’ll see some improvement, and then get back to practice.”

Butte Central will head over Homestake pass for the weekend to compete in the two-day Whitehall Duals.

Thursday’s results:

Butte Central Wrestling Mixer

98 — Clay Stillwagon, BC, pinned Davvis, Cor. Stillwagon, BC, dec. Keneally, Havre, 5-2. Kenneally, Havre, tech fall Trey Smollack, Ana, 16-1. Daffin, Cor, pinned Scholler, Ana, 1:55.

105 — Allsop, Cor, dec. Bryce Noctor, BC, 6-3. Noctor, BC, pinned Bess, Ham, :35. Pleminger, Havre, pinned Anderson, Ham, 1:10.Pleninger, Havre, dec. Allsap, Cor, 6-3. Meyer, Ana, tech. fall Banks, Ham. Dailey, Ana, pinned Bess, Ham, 1:10.

112 — Connor, Cor, dec. Brenna, Havre, 9-2. Anderson, Ham, pinned Kelly Dailey, Ana, :59. Scheffer, Ham, pinned Slone Ueland, Ana, 1:20. Brenna, Havre, tech. fall Banks, Ana. Conner, Cor, pinned Ueland, Ana, 2:35.

119 — Venema, Cor, pinned, Sean Cooney, BC, :39. Venema, Cor, dec. Thomas Moore, Ana, 11-3. Lubke, Ham, pinned Cooney, BC, 3:30. Lubke, Ham, dec. Moore, Ana, 6-4.

125 — Fairbrother, Cor, pinned Aidan Theard, Ana, :25.5. Funk, Ham, pinned Drew Vaughn, Ana, 33.9. Olsen, Cor, tech. fall Stewart, Havre, 16-1. Fairbrother, Cor, pinned Stewart, Havre, 2:42.

135 — Zach Hart, BC, pinned Burt, Cor, 3:25. Hart, Bc, pinned, Doodle, Liv, 1:10.Bara, Havre, pinned Albert, Ham, 2:45. Gruber, Havre, tech fall Few, Ham. Mason Mavrinac, Ana, pinned Doudle, Liv, 2:45.Few, Ham, pinned Luis Fernandez, Ana, 1:21. Mavrinac, Ana, pinned Bara, Havre, 2:11.

140 — Keighton Svejkovsky, BC, pinned Jessop, Cor, 3:15. Angeson, Havre, pinned Andrew Crum, Ana, 2:08. McComber, Liv, pinned Sturm, Ana, 1:25. Svejkovsky, BC, pinned Sturm, Ana, 1:04. Crum, Ana, pinned McComber, Liv, :14.6.

145 — Prybil, Havre, pinned Borgen, Ham, :43. Jesse Cooper, Ana, pinned Fitzgerald, Liv, 2:55. Penno, Liv, pinned Holdaway, Ana, :28.6. Linville, Liv, pinned Holdaway, Ana, 3:28.

152 — Lott, Cor, pinned Perino, Liv, :41.3. Jessop, Cor, dec. Tompkins, Ham, 5-2.

160 — McCormick, Ham, major dec. Austin Flack, Ana, 15-3. Schroeder, Havre, pinned Flack, Ana, :37. Ethan Reich, Ana, pinned Schroeder, Havre, :26.8. Reich, Ana, pinned McCormick, Ham, 2:40.

171 — Belcourt, Havre, pinned McCrossin, Ham, 1:22. Williams, Havre, pinned Scheffer, Ham, 2:50. Williams, Havre, pinned Berdette, Cor, 1:10. Scheffer, Ham, pinned Michael, Ana, 1:20.Burdette, Cor, pinned Michael, Ana, :44. Jesson, Liv, pinned J.J. Zenahlik, Ana, :40. Jesson, Liv, pinned Belcourt, Havre, 2:05. McCrossin, Havre, pinned Zenahlik, Ana, 3:10.

189 — Pattison, Havre, pinned Jessop, Cor, 1:28. Pattison, Havre, pinned Giovani, Molina, Ana, :26. Whtiney, Ham, pinned Ben Holt, BC, 3:10. Molina, Ana, pinned Chance Standish, BC, 1:14.Jessop, Cor, dec. Holt, BC, 5-2. Whitney, Ham, pinned Standish, BC, :54.

215 — Seamus Tweedy, Ana, pinned Bastrup, Liv, 1:04. Odegard, Havre, pinned Schmidt, Cor, :16.2. Adams, Havre, dec. Weidow, Cor, 9-1. Bryce Wigert, Ana, dec. Odegard, Havre, 11-4. Adams, Havre, dec. Wigert, Ana, 9-4.