Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic

One of the most long standing and toughest wrestling duels in the Northwest makes it’s home nestled in the Missoula Valley at Sentinel high school in the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic.

The legendary tournament was renamed to honor one of Montana’s most iconic figures in high school sports in 1995 when coaches involved voted to have it renamed to the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic. Beck coached 12 teams to state titles and 75 individuals to state titles, he was involved in numerous community organizations, and received multitudes of different awards related to wrestling. His last team was the Sentinel Spartans wrestling squad where he lead the Spartans from 1955-1993.

As one of the premiere wrestling invitationals it has brought teams from all over the Northwest who have returned year after year. Many schools throughout America are working to increase the level of competition, not just in wrestling, but in all sports, and one of the ways to do that is compete against athletes from outside your normal coverage area. One of the teams from the Northwest that is working to increase their level of competition is Central Valley high school out of Spokane Washington. Central Valley has made the trek over to Missoula for the past five seasons and they look forward to it every season. Assistant Central Valley wrestling coach Ron Beard says that wrestlers have to be disciplined to compete in the Classic, he goes on talk about Central Valley’s preparation, “When we come here our wrestlers need to be ready to fight because this is a dog fight.”

The tournament is more than just about wrestling for the Missoula community as it brings in dollars to local businesses. With 32 teams making their way to the Garden City motels, restaurants and local shops do more than just provide a service for the teams, they come out to support the student athletes at the tournament. Sentinel Spartan Athletic Director Dane Oliver has seen steady growth in competition and turn out from the community, “It’s unbelievable. Just show up here on Saturday for the finals you’ll see what kind of support we get as the community packs in.”

Bozeman dominated the 2018 Classic as they took first with a team score of 238 points, the Sentinel Spartans finished sixth with 136.5 points, the Frenchtown Broncs landed in the 11th spot with 86 points, the Big Sky Eagle/Loyola Sacred Heart coop found themselves in 12th with 85 points, and Hellagte rounded out the Missoula County schools with 24.5 points, good for 29th place.

Get the full tournament results by clicking the link below.

Final Results