Ponies take to the mats of the Far East

Martin Wilkie and Cameron Pleninger have already started to get a reputation for their wrestling in the state of Montana, but earlier this month, the two Havre High grapplers took their talents to the far east, as in Japan.

Wilkie, a two-time state champion wrestler for the Blue Ponies and Pleninger, who was a runner-up as a freshman in his first high school season at HHS, were both selected to be part of a Montana team of wrestlers that took part in a cultural exchange trip in Japan. Team Montana wrestled four duals against Japanese teams and posted a record of 2-2.

Wilkie, who wrestled at 132 pounds for Team Montana during the duals, posted a record of 3-1. He said he won three of his matches via technical fall and was within a single point of going undefeated. Wilkie lost his final match 17-16.

"There were some things that didn't seem right with the scoring," Wilkie said. "So I felt like I won the match, but it was fun. We ended up becoming friends afterwards."

If Wilkie had won the match, he might have had a chance of being named the MVP of Team Montana, which went to Forsyth's Michael Weber after he posted a perfect 4-0 mark during the trip.

While much of the focus was on wrestling, Wilkie said he and his teammates also got to experience a lot of the Japanese culture during the 10-day trip.

"We got to go out and do a lot of things," Wilkie said. "We went and visited some of the schools, so that was kind of interesting. They are still going to school over there, so we went into some of their classrooms and got a chance to communicate with them. They tried to have us go into the English classes, but most of the time we would talk with a translator. But it was interesting to learn about their culture. It's a lot different than it is here."

Getting to experience the culture was one thing, but trying the different kinds of food, was another adventurous part of the trip.

"Another thing was that we got to try a lot of their food," Wilkie said. "There really wasn't anything that I didn't like too much. I tried squid and that was a little different. But for the most part, I really liked it."

In addition to Wilkie and Pleninger, the other members of Team Montana were Matthew DeWitt, Calvin Musick, Jackson Currier, Daniel Bishop, Stormee Kipp, Nakoda Siegel, Nicholas Langer and Adrian Ramirez. Codey Currier of Colstrip and Mike Stokes of Billings were coaches. Both Langer and Ramirez joined the team from Washington and Oregon, respectively.

"It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't a whole lot different for me," Wilkie said. "I travel to a bunch of different wrestling tournaments, so I am friends with a lot of the guys that I traveled with, but it's still an opportunity to learn and compete with some good partners."

Even though wrestling is popular in the United States, Wilkie said it's very popular in Japan as well. And the athletes that participate in the sport there, are also extremely dedicated.

"I think it might be even more popular over there than it is over here," Wilkie said. "Here, we have some guys that kind of do it all year round, but usually a lot of guys take breaks over the summer or while they are playing other sports and it doesn't seem like they do that over there. It seems like they go all year round."

In terms of the styles, Wilkie said the style was a little bit different, but that no matter what, all wrestlers tend to be unique.

"I think that each wrestler has their own individual style," Wilkie said. "I think their footwork might be a little different and some things like that, but for the most part it was about the same. The competition was good, there were some really good wrestlers that we got to compete against."

All in all, for Wilkie, it was an eye-opening experience and one that he greatly enjoyed.

"It's just a whole different world over there," He said. "It's just so different than the States, but I enjoyed it, I had a lot fun."