Beeters hold their own at Havre Invite

The Havre Blue Ponies were not the only wrestling power from along the Hi-Line to start the season at the Havre Invitational this past weekend inside the HHS gymnasium.

The Chinook Sugarbeeters were also in attendance and once again showed why they have to be among the favorites to win the 2015 Class C state wrestling championship.

The Beeters, who were the Class C runner-up at state last season and in 2012 before capturing four state titles in a five-year stretch from 2007-2011, are looking to get back to the top of Class C wrestling this season and got their 2014-15 campaign off to a promising start with a seventh-place finish at the Havre Invitational.

Seventh may not sound great on paper but considering that the tournament included both Havre, the Class A state champion and Great Falls High, the Class AA state champion from last season, as well as other schools from A and AA such as Lewistown, Libby, CMR and Butte Central, a seventh-place finish and five wrestlers placing in the top six of their weight classes is nothing to scoff at.

"You know what, I thought we wrestled really well," Chinook head coach Perry Miller said. "I thought the kids did a good job. We found some things that we need to work on, but anytime you can come into this house, with the defending A champions and the defending AA champions, which means a lot of quality kids, you have to be real pleased with how our kids performed. There are matches here in this opening weekend that will be more difficult than the ones we will see at state, so I couldn't be more pleased."

The highlight of the weekend came Saturday for the Beeters, when Tate Niederegger, who finished second at state as an individual a season ago, won first place at 138 pounds by way of a 3-1 decision over Jordan Komac of Great Falls High.

"We had Tate, who took first place at 138 pounds, that was great to see," Miller said. "He wrestled a great match and then we had a few others that finished in the top five or six for us."

The other Chinook wrestler to make it into the finals of the Havre Invitational was Kevin Young, who then went head-to-head with Havre's Jace Billy in the championship match but was pinned in 2:22 by Billy, who earned an individual title in Class A at 195 pounds last year.

In addition to Young's second-place finish, Chinook had three other wrestlers who placed, and they were Jake Norby, who finished sixth at 152 pounds, Ken Pruttis, who finished fifth at 160 pounds and Derek Bell, who finished sixth at 170 pounds.

"I think there are still some things that we need to work on," Miller said. "But we are very pleased with this start. Now our goal is to get everyone on the team healthy and onto the mat."

Chester/J-I also scored 25 points at Saturday’s Havre Invite.

The Beeters will be back in action this Thursday when they head to Valier for the Valier Mixer.