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News you can use
Havre High senior Travis Adams, left, and the Blue Pony wrestling team kicks off the new season today with the start of the annual Havre Invitational. The tournament, which also features Class AA powers Great Falls High and CMR, as well as Hi-Line stalwart Chinook, runs through Saturday afternoon at the HHS gymnasium.
There is always one event that signals the start of the winter sports season and that's the Havre Wrestling Invitational.
Like always, the Blue Ponies will host some of the top wrestling teams in the state for the two-day meet that will be held inside the HHS gymnasium. The tournament starts this afternoon and concludes Saturday.
The Ponies, who are the three-time defending state champions in Class A, will begin their title defense against fellow state champions Chinook (Class C) and Great Falls High (Class AA). Other teams that will be participating in the meet include Lewistown, Cut Bank, CMR, Chester/J-I, Butte Central, Browning Malta and Libby.
"We always get some of the best kids in the state to come here to wrestle," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "I think that we have had great representation the past few years and I don't think that will change this year."
Havre comes into the season as the prohibitive favorite to win a fourth straight state championship. The Ponies did graduate a pair of state champions in Jace Billy and Grayson Brenna, but the Ponies return three state champions in Parker Filius, Jase Stokes and Travis Adams. HHS also returns five other grapplers, Logan Pleninger, Ryan Stewart, Tyler Schaub, Kody Pribyl and Dane Flammond that finished in the top five at state a season ago.
There is little doubt that the Ponies are the most experienced and most talented team in the state. Yet, there are a number of freshmen and sophomores that will be looking to gain experience this weekend.
"The first thing that you have to do is wrestle six minutes," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "You need to make some mistakes so you can learn from them, but if you get pinned in the first period, you gotta fix that before you can go on to the next period. If you get pinned in the second, you have to fix that before you can get to the third. So we have to wrestle competitively for six minutes. That's what I'm looking for."
The lineup will be slightly different for the Ponies this season, but they will be open at 103 pounds and 126 pounds. Stewart will be the only wrestler at 113 pounds to start, while freshmen Lane Paulson and Martin Wilkie will each be at 120.
Pleninger will wrestle in the 132-pound weight class, Pribyl will wrestle at 138 and at 145 there will be sophomore Jazz Schroeder as well as freshman Kollin Nystrom. Parker Filius will man the spot at 152 pounds and at 160 pounds there will be Taylor Gopher, Flammond and freshman Jared Laux.
Sophomore Walter White will wrestle at 170 pounds for the Ponies along with freshmen Thor Abbasi and Austin Ratliff.
Stokes will wrestle at 182 pounds along with sophomore JayR Caplette and freshman Jacoby Fox. Schaub will be at 205 pounds, while Adams, John Berg, Jared Sienkowski and Brock Smith will all be in the heavyweight division.
"We got a bunch of young kids," Filius said. "But they are good kids and they are working hard to get better."
Much like Havre, Chinook is loaded with returning talent, highlighted by defending individual state champion Tate Niederegger, who will wrestle at 138 or 145 pounds for the Sugarbeeters. Jake Norby (152/160), Jesse Dannels (182), Kevin Young (205), Kenneth Pruttis (170) and Derek Bell (160) all appeared in the state wrestling tournament a season ago and will wrestle in Havre for the Beeters.
Colton Liddle will also be participating at 120 pounds for Chinook, as well as Alexander Rimkus at 126 pounds, Garrett Lowham at 132 pounds, JJ Colby at 145/152 pounds and Tye Mitchell at 182 pounds.
The Havre invite is the start of a busy schedule for the Ponies, who will take part in the Butte Central Mixer and the Mining City Duals next week in Butte. And while Havre may be the favorite to win the state title in 2016, Filius is just looking forward to this week and getting his kids on the mat for the first time.
"Right now we just need to get some matches in," Filius said. "All of our kids should get some matches in so that's the biggest thing. We just want to get out there and compete."
The Havre Invite starts with a round-robin format this afternoon, followed by a full tournament on Saturday.
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