Blue Pony grapplers battle to a fourth-place finish in Great Falls

The Havre High wrestling team is used to competing for the team title at the CMR Holiday Classic year after year. And while the Ponies didn't come out on top this weekend in Great Falls, they certainly gave it their best shot.

Through two days of competition at what's considered the toughest wrestling tournament in Montana's regular season, the Ponies scored 171.5 points to finish in fourth place overall. Class AA Great Falls High topped the team title with 195.5 points, a mere six points ahead of Central A power Belgrade. Glacier High of Kalispell was third, finishing 14 points ahead of the Ponies.

The Ponies advanced just one wrestler into Saturday's championship round. Duell Stadel captured the prestigious CMR title at 119 pounds, defeating Bozeman's Colin Rupert 8-4 in the championship.

In years past, the Ponies had a more wrestlers reach the championship round, which helped lead to team titles at CMR. But this weekend, a younger Havre team still stepped up in big ways, especially earning points on the back end. Veterans and newcomers performed well for HHS, as Havre placed six wrestlers in the top six.

Eli Hinebauch lost just once, coming back to finish third at 135 pounds. Hinebauch earned a hard-fought 8-5 decision over Bozeman's Nathy Lambert in the consolation final. Junior Casey Schaub only suffered one loss as well, and wound up pinning Belgrade rival Justin Ricker in the 171-pound consolation final. Dillon Seely also scored well for HHS. Seely battled back to finish fifth, pinning Butte High's Bryce Armstrong in the 135-pound fifth-sixth place match.

In the upper weights, the Ponies got sixth-place finishes from senior Josh Salapich at 215 pounds and freshman Tyler Adams at 285 pounds.

It was also a strong weekend for Hi-Line teams Harlem and Chinook. The Wildcats scored 69 points and tied Class A Frenchtown for 22nd place, while the Sugarbeeters scored 65 points and finished 24th overall.

Individually, the Beeters had two champions on Saturday. Junior Benjamin Stroh rolled to the 189-pound title, pinning Ronan's Toby Cheff in the final. Stroh won the "Quick Pin" award by pinning all of his opponents in a total of 8:49 for the weekend. Chinook's Jorrell Jones also captured the 215-pound title by besting Glasgow's Chaz Hopstad 8-4 in the title bout.

Harlem's Trent Jones, a defending Class B-C state champion, reached the 171-pound championship match before falling to Choteau's Adam DeBruckyer 5-3 in the championship match. Colten Dirden also got a fourth-place finish for the Wildcats.

The Ponies are in action again on Tuesday night when they dual rival Lewistown on the road.

CMR Holiday Classic

at Great Falls

Final team scores

1. Great Falls 195.5; 2. Belgrade 189; 3. Kalispell Glacier 185.5; 4. Havre 171.5; 5. Billings Senior 153.5; 6. Bozeman 149; 7. Glasgow 124.5; 8. Butte 120; 9. Billings Skyview 119.5; 10. Laurel 114; 11. Choteau 103.5; 12. Lewistown 101.5; 13. Missoula Big Sky 98; 14. Helena 97; 15. Helena Capital 93; 16. Ronan 88; 17. Billings West 87; 18. Dillon 82; 19. Townsend 77; 20. Conrad 72; 21. CMR 69.5; 22. (tie) Frenchtown 69; and Harlem 69; 24. Chinook 65; 25. Fort Benton 46; 26. (tie) Cut Bank 43 and Livingston 43; 28. Great Falls JV 37; 29. Arlee 34; 30. Missoula Hellgate 31; 31. Chester-J/I 29; 32. Browning 28.5; 33. Cascade/Simms 28; 34. CMR JV 19; 35. Anaconda 13.5; 36. Shelby 11; 37. Big Sandy 9; 38. Belt 7; 39. Butte Central 0; Poplar 0

Finals

98-Grant Boggs, Helena, dec. Vito Degidio, Bozeman, 4-1; 105-Justin Waterson, Billings Skyview, dec. Kaleb Mitchell, Glacier, 6-5; 112-Luke Schlosser , Conrad, dec. Cameron Alverson, Belgrade, 7-6; 119-Duell Stadel, Havre, dec. Colin Rupert, Bozeman, 8-4; 125-Jade Rauser, Townsend, dec. Clay Cathey, Billings Sky-view, 6-4; 130-Val Rauser, Townsend, dec. Cole Mendenhall, Great Falls, 10-8 OT; 135-Josh Morin, Great Falls, dec. Tanner Sprenkle, Billings Senior, 3-2; 140-Jesse Werdal , Choteau, pinned Luke Paine, Billings Senior, 2:22; 145-Dylan Mendenhall, Great Falls, dec. Rex Martin, Lewistown, 5-3 OT; 152-Brad Nordahl , Frenchtown, dec. Ben Sulser, Billings Senior, 6-4 OT; 160-Connor Malone, Lewistown, dec. Jordan Malarchick, Belgrade, 4-3; 171-Adam DeBruycker , Choteau, dec. Trent Jones, Harlem, 5-3; 189-Benjamin Stroh, Chinook, pinned Toby Cheff, Ronan, :58; 215-Jorrell Jones, Chinook, dec. Chaz Hopstad, Glasgow, 8-4; 285-Chad Sickles, Missoula Big Sky, pinned Joel Horn, Glacier, 3:44

Third place

98-Tayte Wegner, Billings Senior, dec. Christian Knopp, Glacier, 2-0; 105-Josh Smart, Great Falls, dec. Zak Harney, Butte, 5-3; 112-Gabe Schroeck, Helena, pinned Alek Mitchell, Glacier, 1:38; 119-Bryce Weatherston, Belgrade, dec. Brock Miller, Billings Skyview, 8-1; 125-Tre Yaeger, Lewistown, dec. Zach Barber, Glacier, 2-0; 130-Shawn Tezak, Dillon, dec. Lucas Mantel, Glacier, 7-5; 135-Luke Zeiger, Glasgow, dec. Colton Dirden, Harlem ; 140-Tommy Cooper , Laurel, m-dec.Tyler Christians, Helena, 10-1; 145-Cole Rice , Arlee, T-fall Grant Tafoya, Glacier, 15-0; 152-Eli Hinebauch, Havre, dec. Natty Lambert, Bozeman, 8-5; 160-Dylan Kramer , Laurel, m-dec.Cole McArthur, Ronan, 11-2; 171-Casey Schaub, Havre, pinned Justin Ricker, Belgrade, 4:55; 189-Levi Cade, Belgrade, dec. Taylor Buck , Choteau, 5-2; 215-Brock Calvi, Cut Bank, pinned Austin Rehyer, Belgrade, 3:39; 285-John Kellems, Great Falls, pinned Zach Smith, Helena Capital, 2:05

Fifth place

98-Justin Conklin, Missoula Big Sky, dec. Bryan Armstrong, Butte ; 105-CJ Ness, Billings Senior, m-dec.Austin Lundin, Helena Capital, 14-2; 112-Jacob Bethea, Glasgow, dec. Koby Reyes, Billings West, 7-1; 119-Braden Hallock, Glasgow, dec. Austin Shupe, Great Falls, 5-2; 125-Andrew Teigan, Ronan, pinned Cody Ishler , Frenchtown, 1:42; 130-Marcus Kolp, Bozeman, dec. Jeremy Quinterro, Belgrade, 8-2; 135-Dillon Seeley, Havre, pinned Bryce Armstrong, Butte, 3:55; 140-Dexter Trask, Lewistown, dec. Ethan Sterling, Bel-grade, 12-8; 145-Sam Shelton, Billings Skyview, dec. Dilan Starkle, Dillon, 9-5; 152-Derek McGrath, Butte, pinned Ryan Bergtoll, Glasgow, 2:57; 160-Johnny Schlosser , Conrad, dec. Jake Dallaserra, Butte ; 171-Chris Yocum, Butte, dec. Jake Leinwand, Billings West, 5-4; 189-Skyler Carroll, Livingston, dec. Ryan Otto, C.M. Russell, 6-4; 215-Phil Selin, C.M. Russell, pinned Josh Salipich, Havre, 4:19; 285-Jacob Moderie, Missoula Hellgate, dec. Tyler Adams, Havre, 2-1.