Ponies crown five on finals night

BILLINGS — There is nothing quite like finals night at the Montana All-Class state wrestling tournament. And once again this year, the Havre Blue Ponies made quite sure that they left their mark on it.

After qualifying 13 wrestlers for the semifinals on day one of the tournament Friday at the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra Park, Havre put six wrestlers into the finals and for the second straight year had an all-Havre championship. By Saturday night’s end, the Blue Ponies walked away with five individual titles, and of course, a third straight Class A team title.

The all Havre final took place at 145 pounds, where sophomore Parker Filius, who came into the tournament in search of his second individual title, squared off against senior Gunnar Aageson. Aageson, who made a Cinderella run to the finals, couldn’t quite conquer Filius, who completed the second leg of his quest to be a four-time state champion by pinning Aageson in 1:07 to lock up the title.

“It meant a lot,” Filius said. “It was my goal all year to win one. It was fun. I just tried to focus on wrestling my match all weekend.

“It was extremely weird for my first time in the finals and having to wrestle your own teammate — it was weird. I didn’t know what to expect,” Aageson said. “But I am glad that it was against Parker. He’s a great guy and glad that it was me and him that got a matchup here.”

Outside of Filius and Aageson, four other Havre wrestlers made it to the finals, including Grayson Brenna at 132 pounds, Jase Stokes at 160 pounds, Jace Billy at 205 pounds and Travis Adams in the heavyweight class.

Brenna, who won an individual title in 2013 but finished third a year ago was desperate to get back into the winner’s circle on finals night and he did just that with an 11-3 major decision over Kaleb Graveline of Columbia Falls. Early on, the match was a stalemate and was tied at zero after the first period. But then, after a series of takedowns and a near fall, Brenna built a big lead and made sure to hang on for his second career title.

“It feels good,” Brenna said after his victory. “I have really been working hard. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my coaches, teammates, my family, our fans and especially my dad. All of them pushed me to be where I am at now.”

Brenna was happy to win and he was not alone. His head coach, Scott Filius was also pleased to see him go out on top where he belonged.

“Grayson has been a leader for us for the last three years,” Scott Filius said. “This year, he has been lights out. He has prepared mentally as strong as any kid that we had all year. I am very confident putting him out there and even though there was a styles conflict in the last match, he just flat outworked him. He’s been fun, I’m going to miss Grayson.”

After Brenna and Filius took home titles, it was Stokes’ turn and once again the superbly talented sophomore took care of business. Stokes, who wrestles at 160 pounds, not only pinned all three of his opponents on the way to the finals, he made it a clean sweep by notching a seemingly effortless pin over Doug Rooney of Sidney in just 1:21. The win was significant for two reasons. The first was that it puts Stokes, along with Parker Filius at the halfway mark to becoming four-time state champions, the rarest of feats for wrestlers. The second was that Stokes’ victory officially clinched the team championship for Havre by making it mathematically impossible for Sidney to catch the Ponies.

“It feels good and I just have to keep aiming for the next year,” Stokes said. “I just want to take it one year at a time but hopefully I can do it (win four state titles).”

Once Stokes officially wrapped up the title for Havre, the only question that remained was how many individual champions Havre would get and next up for the Ponies was Billy, who was looking to cap his senior season with a second straight title.

Billy, who will wrestle for Montana State University-Northern next season, was dominant all weekend and even surprised himself by how well he wrestled in the 205-pound finals.

Billy was wrestling Hunter Severson of Sidney and after being in a dog fight for much of the match, he led just 2-0 in the middle of the second period. But that’s when Billy struck with his patented cradle maneuver and once he applied it the match was over. In the end, he pinned Severson in 3:48 to end his Pony career in style.

“I’m just so surprised by what just happened,” an ecstatic Billy said immediately after the match. “He’s a good kid and I thought it was going to the third or maybe even overtime. I was expecting a dog fight so that pin really shocked myself. I cracked his cradles like crazy than I got him locked up tight and usually once I get (other wrestlers) into it, they are not getting out.”

Last but not least on finals night for Havre was Adams. Last year, Adams lost to his brother Tyler in the finals and after tasting defeat in the championship round as a sophomore, he was determined to become an individual champion.

After getting two falls and a technical fall on his way to the heavyweight finals, Adams continued his domination on the biggest stage in Montana wrestling by pinning Bryce Blumenschein of Belgrade in just 1:33.

“I’m overwhelmed with joy,” Adams said. “I felt just awesome. The key was hard work, the lord Jesus Christ and unrelenting stubbornness on my part. I’m hard headed. I have always wanted to come away with the title since my freshman year and this year, I finally had the ability to do that.”

The lone defeat for Havre on finals night was Aageson, who fell at the hands of Parker Filius, but even though he lost, he put together the best state tournament of his Havre wrestling career and was a big reason why Havre went on to win the Class A team title.

“Gunner wrestled well,” Scott Filius said. “He went up against three kids that we thought he could beat and he beat them. So you have to give a lot of credit to him.”

When all was said and done, the Ponies stole the show on finals nights, finishing with five victories and just one loss, which came at the hands of a Havre wrestler as they cruised to a third straight team championship and a seventh in the last nine years.