(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

CHEWELAH CHAMP: Chewelah fighter who trains a local Jiu Jitsu school wins 125-pound championship in area MMA competition…

Chewelah Jiu Jitsu ccontinues to bring home the belts.

Trustin Taft has become the latest MMA champion to come out of the town. At this month’s The Beatdown at the West Central Community Center, Taft defeated previously undefeated Tyler Walker for the 125-pound championship. He improved his record to 3-1 and is the new Flyweight Champion for The Beatdown’s promotion company.

Taft won by arm triangle choke and will now have the opportunity to fight for another title in the Proving Grounds Promotion in a few months.

“His strengths are his toughness and iron will,” Chewelah Juu Jitsu instructor Kris Rancourt said. “Trustin has been training for about a year with me and is becoming well-rounded.” More

(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

Chewelah’s Haven Rainer looks to pass the ball during league play against Kettle Falls last Friday. (Brandon Hansen photo)

POSTSEASON LOOMS: Lady Cougs will play in opening round of district tournament on Feb. 10 against Reardan…

Although Chewelah’s Lady Cougars went into last week’s final league game with a 1-8 record, they have earned an entry into this year’s district tournament. The Cougars will meet the Lady Indians from Reardan in the opening round of the tournament on Monday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m. The Indians are the fourth-seeded team from the southern division of the league and will take a 6-5 record into the tournament.

This Friday at 6 p.m., Chewelah could end their regular season with a win. They host Wilbur-Creston, which is the only team Chewelah outscored this season. The Cougars defeated the Wildcats 54-41 in their first meeting and hope to bag their second win this Friday.

Over last weekend, the Lady Cougars lost 46-29 at Kettle Falls and returned home to endure a 58-41 loss to St. George’s. They stayed with the Bulldogs through the first half and held a 19-18 lead early in the third period before Kettle Falls pulled away late in the game for the win. Against St. George’s on Saturday, the Lady Cougars were outscored 22-4 in the second period on their way to a 58-41 loss. More

(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

Chewelah’s Jaron Baldwin snags the ball while in the air during league play against the Kettle Falls Bulldogs. (KS Brooks photo)

CLOSE BATTLES: Chewelah falls to Kettle Falls and then drops matchup against state’s No. 2 team, St. George’s…

Chewelah watched its 10-point third period lead flip into a five-point deficit by the end of the game on Friday night at Kettle Falls as the homestanding Bulldogs solidified their grip on second place in the northern division standings with a 64-59 win. The Cougars scored the first 10 points of the third period and led 38-28, but the Bulldogs caught up by the end of the period and fought off a final Cougar rally to savor the league victory.

This was a game Chewelah had to win to remain in contention for a second place finish in the final league standings. The loss, coupled with Saturday evening’s 73-52 shortfall against St. George’s, plunged the Cougars into fourth place. They have now lost three consecutive league encounters, beginning with the previous week’s unexpected 63-59 deficit against Davenport.

Second-ranked St. George’s stands alone at the top of the northern division standings with a 9-0 league record. Kettle Falls holds onto second place with a 6-3 record. Davenport, which now sits in third place with a 5-3 conference record, still has to face Kettle Falls and St. George’s this weekend. The three straight losses tumbled Chewelah into fourth place with a 4-5 record with one game remaining on the schedule. More

(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)

Chewelah’s Kristen Erickson battles Springdale’s Faith Goforth during league wrestling in Kettle Falls last weekend. (Brandon Hansen photo)

Postseason begins for wrestlers on Thursday…

Class–B wrestlers from the northeastern corner of the state will gather in Pein-Lynch Gym this Thursday for the Northeast B League northern division tournament. The top four wrestlers in each of the 14 weight classes will advance to the district tournament hosted by Reardan on Feb. 15. At the same time, the league’s southern division will have its tournament at Liberty with the top four wrestlers moving on to Reardan.

“We will have an eight-man bracket format for this tournament,” said Coach Kim Hogan, “but only a couple of the brackets will be full. Some of the brackets will have only three or four wrestlers in them. In all, we expect to have between 50 and 60 matches wrestled here on Thursday night, beginning at 4:00. They will be fought on two mats, so they will go fast.”

Wrestlers were seeded into their respective weight brackets after the league meet at Kettle Falls on Saturday. The results of this meet and the results from an earlier league meet at Wilbur were used to seed the brackets. Three Cougars were seeded first into Thursday’s tournament without having to wrestle at Kettle Falls. They were Justyce Acosta, Jake Jeanneret, and Cole Davis.
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