Sports

Eli finishes promising freshman season in Belcourt

By Matthew Semisch

04/14/2015

Bottineau High’s wrestlers are Braves, but they don’t don the colors you’re probably thinking of.

BHS doesn’t have its own wrestling program. As such, students who are interested in the sport have to take their talents eastward to become part-time Braves with Turtle Mountain Community School (TMCS) in Belcourt.

Jordan Eli, a freshman originally from Phillipsburg, Kan., recently finished his second season with TMCS. He has quickly turned heads around the state, especially with how his most recent season turned out.

Competing in the 138-pound division in the 2015 Class A state tournament in Fargo, Eli finished in seventh place. He finished the meet at the Fargodome with a 3-2 record.

He capped off his time at the meet with a seventh-place match victory over Raif Horswill of Williston. Eli defeated Horswill on an 8-3 decision.

Eli said he felt comfortable in his second season with TMCS. His eighth-grade campaign, he said, was more about getting used to wrestling in North Dakota after his move from Kansas.

“I did way better this year, a big difference from last year,” Eli said. “Eighth grade was more about getting my feet wet and getting ready for this year and I know I was ready going into state this year.

“I was ranked going into the tournament so I felt really confident I was going to place,” he continued. “I was seeded sixth but placed seventh, and most everybody that was seeded finished around there, but I had to go out and make it happen.”

TMCS head wrestling coach Derrick Dixon believes the chance is there for Eli to win several state titles as he moves on with his high school career.

“You can always improve, and he knows that and is always working to improve,” Dixon said. “On the mat, he’s really coachable and is great on his feet, but he needs to work on his down wrestling, and he’s talked about that before. 

“He’s aware of that, and he’s talked about holding people down and he’s grown at it and gotten better. He’s only going to keep improving. 

“He’s got the potential to be a three-time state champion,” Dixon continued. “He really does, and he can do that easily in the next couple of years if he continues to work as hard as he does.”

Eli agreed that he has things to work on that will help him improve. His eyes are squarely on the prizes - state championships - but he knows he’ll have to work to earn them.

“I want to get better at wrestling off the bottom because that’s where I got stuck more than with anything else,” he said, “and that’s about getting the mechanics down.

“I want to do that, but on top of that, I want to finish at the top of the podium next year.”