Havre Invite: Time to hit the mat

Every year, the Havre High wrestling team kicks off a new season with the Havre Invitational at the Havre High gymnasium. This year is no exception, and the Blue Ponies will do so while facing what could be one of the toughest opening weekends in the state.

Today through Saturday, the Ponies will welcome in about 15 teams. Round-robin action was set to begin today at 1 p.m. and the day will end with the first round of the tournament portion of the weekend. Tournament action will continue Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Teams expected to attend this weekend include CMR, Lewistown, Cut Bank, Glasgow, Browning, Libby, Butte Central, Fort Benton, Chester/J-I, Chinook, Big Sandy, Malta and last years’ AA champion, Great Falls High.

The Ponies finished in second place last year in Havre, but claimed three individual championships and four second-place finishes. Grayson Brenna, Dylan Stewart and Tyler Adams all took first place, while Keegan Kennelly, Thomas Gruber, Jordan Schroeder and Jace Billy all finished in second. Other key wrestlers this weekend will include Kody Pribyl, Logan Pleninger, Travis Adams, Gunnar Aageson, Jordan Schroeder, Jason Kohler, Jake Williams and Dustin Odegard.

Jase Stokes, Parker Filius, and Dane Flammond will make their debut as standout Blue Pony freshmen.

“We have some great teams coming in and some great individuals,” Havre High head coach Scott Filius said, “so we will really find out how tough we are right away. We try not to use practice time for the wrestle offs if we don’t have to. We will take care of that this weekend at the weights that are contested, but we are pretty spread out and not really deep. We have about 25 kids, and we are spread pretty well top to bottom and are doubled up at only a couple weights.”

Coach Filius will have a solid lineup to build off of after this weekend, including finding the right weights for all of his guys.

But last year’s No. 2 finish at the beginning of the season turned into another Class A state title at the end of the season for the Ponies. And while state is the ultimate goal yet again, this weekend the focus is on going out and seeing competition. There are no glaring areas that need work just yet, that will come later, and Filius should get a nice preview of his guys, as they should see nearly seven matches each this weekend.

“More than anything, we are looking for effort,” Filius said. “We don’t even know what we need to fix until we see them compete. And if we compete well, we can find areas of technique to work on. But until we get the kids competing, there isn’t a whole lot that we can second-guess. And we have some kids that will do just fine. We will do well at our tournament and most of our kids will get close to seven matches. By the end of the weekend we will have a good feel of what each kid needs.”

The Ponies are an early favorite in the Central A and Class A ranks again this, year, but the Ponies will put their talents on display for the first time this weekend. The annual Havre Invite begins this afternoon and runs through Saturday evening at the HHS gymnasium.