Sports Editor

Williston had a few challenges to overcome in its first outing of the wrestling season when the Coyotes hosted Belcourt Friday.

The Coyotes lost to Belcourt in a close dual last year and wanted to get off to a better start this season. Williston also is returning some experience but no real leadership from last year and the younger wrestlers had to battle some nerves.

A couple of wrestlers had to battle girls as well, but the Coyotes came through with a 46-33 win over the Braves to open the season. The dual saw 11 pins and two technical falls.

"I thought it would be close, it always seems to be with these guys (Belcourt). It always back and forth and at the start of the year there's a lot of pins between us because some of the younger guys haven't learned to fight off their back yet, but our guys were pretty solid," said Coyotes coach Chuck Michaelson. And the girls?

"The guys know of them. They've wrestled several years. We just tell our guys to go out and approach them like a defending state champ and just wrestle. Like it or not, they went out and did the job," said Michaelson of his wrestlers.

The contests with the two girls from Belcourt ended up being key as the Coyotes held just a 35-33 lead going into the last two matches.

At 125 pounds, Aaron Roness dominated Jordan St. Germane, but couldn't get the pin winning by technical fall with a 17-1 score to secure the team win for the Coyotes with a 40-33 lead.

Kyle Kitzenberg did pin Kristen Desjarlais in 2:33, but not until after he held just a 4-3 lead.

The dual started with 135 pounds, and the Coyotes trailed 33-24 after 10 of the 14 matches.

However, Adam Lambert got the quickest pin of the day with a 47-second match at 112 pounds to get within 33-30.

"Lambert carried over his state experience from last year and you could see he had more confidence when he stepped on the matt. A lot of the guys were confident and that's what I like to see," said Michaelson.

Anthony Kueffler then dominated his match at 119 pounds with four near falls, and despite his frustration in not being able to get a pin, he did get a technical fall to take the 35-33 lead going into the last two matches.

Michaelson the key matches were at 145 and 152 pounds where the Coyotes went 1-1.

"Both of their guys are veteran wrestlers and are two of their better guys. We won one and lost one, but we wrestled well in both and both could have went either way," said Michaelson.

Shawn Sneva lost the 145-pound match with Laramie Lunday after the two traded near-falls.

Adam Stenson and Austin Desjarlais battled at 152 pounds and when it appeared Stenson was caught in the cradle, he rolled Desjarlais into the cradle instead and got the win.

Kurt Wiedrich had a dominant performance for a pin in 1:19 at 171 pounds for Williston, while Kent Hermanson opened with a pin in 1:15 at 135. Andrew Diechert got a pin at 160.

Williston 46, Belcourt 33

135 - Kent Hermanson (W) pinned Brandon LaFontain (B) 1:15.

140 - Vincent LaFontain (B) pinned Justin Langseth (W) 4:39.

145 - Laramie Lunday (B) pinned Shawn Sneva (W) 5:06.

152 - Adam Stenson (W) pinned Austin Desjarlais (B) 4:23.

160 - Andrew Diechert (W) pinned Devin Pays (B) 2:46.

171 - Kurt Wiedrich (W) pinned Jeremy Laducer (B) 1:19.

189 - Aaren St. Vincent (B) dec. Nathan Jorgenson (W) 2-1.

215 - Jon Nadeau (B) pinned C.J. Wells (W) 2:36.

275 - Wade Crissler (B) pinned Brent Qvale (W) :56.

103 - Shane Lavallie (B) pinned Taylor Stenson (W) 2:54.

112 - Adam Lambert (W) pinned Dustin Lindgren (B) :47.

119 - Anthony Kueffler (W) tech. fall Shaun Hall (B) 17-0.

125 - Aaron Roness (W) tech. fall Jordan St. Germane (B) 17-1.

130 - Kyle Kitzenberg (W) pinned Kristen Dejarlais (B) 2:33.