Pony grapplers keep their Cut Bank Invite championship

The growing trend of the Havre Blue Pony wrestling program is that they know how to win.

And capturing their seventh straight team title at the Cut Bank Invitational over the weekend, the Ponies continued to build on that tradition.

Friday and Saturday, the Central A Ponies were in Cut Bank, where they captured the No. 1 spot with a team score of 241 points. Glasgow finished in a distant second with 169 points, and Conrad finished in third with 156.

"The kids came out of the break and wrestled real well," Havre High head coach Scott Filius said. "I was pleased with what they did. I think it is a testament to what we are doing is right. Maybe our practices over the break are working and our kids are peaking at the right time. We have a tendency to wrestle well at Cut Bank and there is an expectation there and the kids are meeting it. It's fun."

Rounding off the finishers this weekend was No. 4 Choteau with 148, No. 5 Lewistown with 125, No. 6 Darby with 107, No 7. Lincoln County with 103, No. 8 Great Falls High JV with 99, No. 9 Harlem with 96.5, No. 10 Cascade/Simms with 87, No. 11 Malta with 86, No. 11 Cut Bank with 86, No. 13 Chinook with 74, No. 14 Fairfield with 69, No. 15 Jefferson with 61, No. 16 Chester-Joplin/Inverness with 54, No. 17 Fort Benton with 51, No. 18 CMR JV with 50, No. 19 Noxon with 42, No. 20 Browning with 19, No. 21 Poplar with 17.5, No. 22 Belt with 17, No. 22 Big Sandy with 17, No. 24 Whitefish with 10, No. 25 Shelby with 7 and No. 26 Highwood with 3 points.

The Ponies were open at three weight classes this weekend. Normally they are open at just 98 pounds, but with sickness and injury, HHS was also open at 140 and 171. But that didn't make a difference as the Ponies had 12 kids place in the top six, 11 of those in the top five.

"Everybody was contributing points and that was good to see that there weren't any holes in our lineup," Filius said. "We didn't have 98 pounds, 140 or 171, but the kids that did wrestle did very, very well."

Duell Stadel (119) and Eli Hinebauch (145) both earned individual titles for the Ponies. Stadel earned a 5-1 decision over Braden Hallok of Glasgow, and Hinebauch pinned Joel Graf of Fairfieldin the finals.

And earning third-place finishes were Gilbert Bara (112) with a 5-2 decision, Zack Smith (130) with a 6-2 decision, Dillon Seely (135) with a pin, Kameron Pribyl (152) with a 12-6 decision and Tyler Adams (275) with a pin.

Jared Ruttkofsky (189) and Josh Salapich (215) both finished in fourth place for the Ponies. Ruttkofsky lost by a 12-3 major decision and Salapich lost by forfeit.

Finishing in fifth place was Nate Kennelly (105) and Thomas Gruber (125). Kennelly earned a tech fall, while Gruber won by way of fall. Grant Pattison (152) wrestled in the fifth-place match, but grabbed a sixth-place finish after being pinned.

Stadel and Hinebauch continued to be a force with their grabbing of championship finishes, but freshmen Kennelly, Adams, Gruber and Jake Williams also did well for themselves and the squad.

Williams did not place, but in his first varsity tournament wrestling up a weight at 160 pounds went 2-2 on the weekend.

"Duell (Stadel) and Eli (Hinebauch) are just so dog gone sharp match in and match out that you kind of take them for granted," Filius said. "But as far as new faces, I had some freshman that I was very excited about. They all have a lot of improvements, but they are making the right steps.

"We've have a lot of work to do," Filius added, "But we are making strides in the right direction. I think we are going to just focus on keeping on keeping on."

Next weekend will be a busy one for the Ponies.

On Thursday, the Ponies face Great Falls in Great Falls, and Friday-Saturday the Ponies will take to Missoula for the Missoula Invite.

Championship matches:

98 — Shay Snider, HAR tech. fall Cody Humphrey, JEFF.

105 — Kylan Berkram, CTB pinned Clancy Ludvigson, CSM 2:06.

112 — Luke Schlosser, CON 10-0 maj. dec. Jacob Bethea, GLA.

119 — Deull Stadel, HAV 5-1 dec. Braden Hallock, GLA.

125 — Caleb Caicedo, DAR pinned Tre Yaeger, LEW :40.

130 — Tanner Evers, DAR 5-3 dec. John Chamberlin, LEW.

135 — Luke Zieger, GLA pinned Christian Hammersmith, DAR

140 — Jesse Werdal, CHO 6-0 dec. Dalton Roundy, DAR.

145 — Eli Hinebauch, HAV pinned Joel Graf, FFD 1:38.

152 — Rex Martin, LEW 3-1 dec. Johhny Schlosser, CON.

160 — Connor Malone, LEW 11-2 maj. dec. Tucker Holstein, GLA.

171 — Trent Jones, HAR 5-2 dec. Taylor Vaughn, LIN.

189 — Benjamin Stroh, CHI pinned Adam Moore, NOX 2:34.

215 — Jorell Jones, CHI 3-1 OT dec. Brock Calvi, CTB.

275 — Ethan Wolery, C/J-I 12-11 dec. Matt Ortega, FFD.

3rd place matches:

98 — Kenton Evans, GFH JV 7-2 dec. Seth Mader, GFH JV RENEGADE (REN).

105 — Gavin Peck, GFH JV pinned Justin Meyer, CMR JV REN 2:23.

112 — Gilbert Bara, HAV 5-2 dec. Travis Vermulm, CTB.

119 — Riley DeBruycker, FTB 9-8 dec. Chris Doney, MAL.

125 — Perry Woodlan, CSM 12-2 maj. dec. Dakota McMann, GFH JV.

130 — Zach Smith, HAV 6-2 dec. Neil Johnson, CTB.

135 — Dillon Seely, HAV pinned Levi Nelson, CSM REN 1:57.

140 — Chris Shupe, HAR disq. Jerime Granot, LEW.

145 — Leonard Pugsley, C/J-I 9-3 dec. Tony Lightner, CHO.

152 — Kameron Pribyl, HAV 12-6 dec. Justin Smith, CSM.

160 — Ryan Smith, MAL 8-4 dec. Jake French, CHO.

171 — Adam DeBruycker, CHO pinned Tyler Nelson, CON :49.

189 — Owen DeBruycker ,CHO 12-3 maj. dec. Jared Ruttkofsky, HAV.

215 — Chaz Hopstad, GLA forfeit Josh Salapich, HAV.

275 — Tyler Adams, HAV pinned Jack Clark, CHO :44.

5th place matches:

98 — Morgan Koenig, CON pinned Sage Fadness, JEFF REN 4:51.

105 — Nate Kennelly, HAV tech. fall Gus Taylor, HAR.

112 — Nikko Bakkila, LIN pinned Riley Wavra, CMR JV 1:30.

119 — Garrett Moritz, CON 6-3 dec. Kevin Frigon, GLA REN.

125 — Thomas Gruber, HAV pinned Trent Vaughn, LIN 1:50.

130 — Ashton Dierman, LIN 11-4 dec. Nathan Applegate, FTB.

135 — Nick Keen, CSM pinned Jose Letcher, LIN 1:34.

140 — Layne Durfee, CHO REN pinned Brandon French, CON 3:49.

145 — Nate Carlson, MAL pinned Jacob Sanford, LEW 1:58.

152 — Ryan Bergtoll, GLA pinned Grant Pattison, HAV 4:33.

160 — Sam Smith, GLA REN pinned Buddy Warren, JEFF 2:20.

171 — Song Stuker, HAR pinned Greg Hinojosa, CHO REN 2:34.

189 — Lucas Schultz, CON pinned Rob Smartnick, JEFF 2:12.

215 — John Kellems, GFH JV 14-5 maj. dec. Austin Burshia, POP.

275 — Blake Ereaux, FTB pinned Shalon Norick, C/J-I 2:21.