Ponies roll to Central A title

At the Central A divisional wrestling tournament, the Havre High wrestling team did exactly what it expected to do. And even more important than the team title earned by Havre, the Blue Ponies are now one step closer to claiming yet another Class A state title.

Saturday, the Blue Ponies competed against the rest of the Central A in Browning. The Ponies proved they are too deep and too talented to be knocked off their divisional throne with an impressive 296 team points. Belgrade finished second with 210, followed by Lewistown with 119, Browning with 88, and Livingston with a distant 77.

Havre also made light work of the shallow competition by placing each of its 17 wrestlers in the top five. That means the Ponies will take a full lineup of 17 grapplers to the state tournament.

“Teams like Belgrade are just too short to keep up, they don’t have enough guys and their quality isn’t what it has been the last few years,” Havre High head coach Scott Filius said. “But the kids wrestled real well. We didn’t get a whole lot of matches and it is frustrating that there aren’t more kids out there. Now we just have to make sure we stay sharp in practice. But we took 17 kids and got them all qualified for state, so we are happy with that.”

Individual title winners included Keegan Kennelly (106), Logan Pleninger (113), Grayson Brenna (120), Parker Filius (138), Kody Pribyl (145), Jase Stokes (152), Jake Williams (171), Jace Billy (195) and Travis Adams (220). Kennelly, Pleninger, and Travis Adams all won by forfeit in the championships, while Billy defeated Belgrade’s Jaden Bryant by default. But as the Ponies did all weekend, several wrestlers dominated their final match. Brenna earned a major decision over Chad Lander of Lewistown, 13-0, while Stokes earned a solid 7-1 decision over Noah Criner of Belgrade. Filius pinned Lyle Degen of Belgrade in just 1:15.

Also in the finals, Pribyl narrowly escaped Thad Kucera of Lewistown with 5-4 decision, while Williams defeated Divin Blythe of Lewistown with a 5-4 decision.

“All of our kids wrestled well in the championship round,” coach Filius said. “We had a couple of matches end up closer than they have been in the past, but it is hard to get excited about this divisional tournament. It just needs to be more competitive.”

But the Ponies had four other individuals come up just short in the chipper.

Dylan Stewart (126) suffered a 7-2 loss to Lewistown’s Hunter Grover, finishing the weekend with a No. 2 finish, while Thomas Gruber (132) also lost 6-4 to Belgrade’s Jarrett Deegan for a second-place finish. Jared Laux (160) was pinned by Keevan Pickle of Belgrade, and Tyler Adams (220) gave up a forfeit win to his brother Travis for another Blue Pony second-place finish.

Dane Flammond (126), Gunnar Aageson (138), and Dustin Odegard (182) all placed third for the Ponies. John Chinadle also placed fifth for the Ponies, completing the lineup at an impressive 17 keeping their seasons alive and taking on the best of the best at state.

“We didn’t have too many hiccups,” coach Filius said. “You always want to get everybody qualified, but you also want to come away healthy, and we did both of those things. We are going to ratchet it up another level moving forward, but you expect that as the season goes on.”

The Central A champion Blue Ponies will now look to defend their Class A state title. Friday and Saturday the Ponies will face the rest of the Class A’s best at the Metra Park’s Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings.

Central A at Browning

Team scores – 1. Havre 296.5; 2. Belgrade 210.5; 3. Lewistown 119; 4. Browning 88; 5. Livingston 77

Finals

98 – Sawyer Degan, BEL p. Brandon Rockwell, BEL 5:19

106 – Keegan Kennelly, HAV, bye.

113 – Logan Pleninger, HAV, bye

120 – Grayson Brenna, HAV, md. Chad Lander, LEW 13-0

126 – Hunter Grover, LEW, d. Dylan Stewart, HAV, 7-2

132 – Jarrett Denen, BEL, d. Thomas Gruber, HAV, 6-4

138 – Parker Filius, HAV, p. Lyle Degen, BEL, 1:15

145 – Kody Pribyl, HAV, d. Thad Kucera, LEW, 5-4

152 – Jase Stokes, HAV, d. Noah Criner, BEL, 7-1

160 –Keevan Pickle, BEL, p. Jared Laux, HAV, :49

171 – Jake Williams, HAV, d. Devin Blythe, LEW, 5-4

182 – Ethan Blythe, LEW, p. Raven Cunningham, BEL, 1:09

195 – Jace Billy, HAV, by default over Jaden Bryant, BEL

220 –Travis Adams, HAV, by forfeit over Tyler Adams, HAV

285 – Peter Townes, LIV, p. Jordan Murillo, BEL 4:51

Third place

98 – Kai Krumweide, LEW, bye

106 – no matches

113 – no matches

120 – Shade Noble, BEL, tf Haden Mushrush, LIV, 16-1

126 – Dane Flammond, HAV, p. Isaac Wippert, BRN :46

132 – Billy Birdwell, LEW, d. Calvin Racine, BRN, 4-2

138 – Gunnar Aageson, HAV, p. Chris Swanson, LIV, 3:53

145 – Zeus Rutherford, BRN, md. Braden Fitzgerald, LIV, 13-2

152 – Brandon Gilham, BRN, p. Clayton Linville, LIV, 2:08

160 – Jordan Perino, LIV, d. Bradley Denton, LEW, 6-0

171 – Grady Blewett, BEL, d. Kiin Salois, BRN, 5-3

182 – Dustin Odegard, HAV, d. Cody Lucke, BRN, 4-1

195 – William Ollinger, BRN, d. John Chinadle, HAV, 5-1

220 – Bryce Blumenschein, BEL, bye

285 – Terydon Hall, BRN, p. Cameron Carter, BEL, 2:14.