Beeters, Hawks look tough at 2015 Havre Invitational

The Havre Invitational is not only a place for the Havre High wrestling team to kick off its season, it's also a meet that provides the official starting point for a number of other wrestling teams along the Hi-Line.

While the Blue Ponies may have dominated the two-day meet that took place Friday and Saturday inside the HHS gymnasium, there were still some solid performances from some schools along the Hi-Line making their season debuts.

One team that certainly made its presence felt was Chinook. The Sugarbeeters took to the mat for the first time since capturing the Class C state championship last season and despite missing some of their top guns, they still produced a solid showing with 72 points overall, which was good enough for sixth place. Chinook placed four wrestlers in the top six in the meet.

"It's such a great experience for our kids to be able to wrestle against the kind of competition that we see here," Chinook co-head coach Adam Tilleman said. "This is probably as good a competition that we will face all year, so it's great to come here and face that the first week."

Another team that put together a notable performance was Chester/J-I. The Hawks are a much smaller team than Chinook, but showed they can compete with the big boys, with two wrestlers finishing sixth. C/J-I ended up in 10th place with 17 points just ahead of Butte Central.

While Chinook was missing its top wrestler Tate Niederegger, who captured an individual state title last season, as well as two other stalwarts in Kevin Young and Jake Norby, all due to injury, the Beeters still represented themselves well.

No one wrestled better for Chinook than Jesse Dannels, who made it all the way to finals in the 182-pound weight class before being knocked off by Havre's Jase Stokes. Kenneth Pruttis also managed to take home a third-place finish for the Beeters at 170 pounds. Ross Reid was fifth and James Buffington was sixth at 126 pounds as well for Chinook.

"We know that we have a pretty strong team," Tilleman said. "We just need to get the kids back in wrestling shape. We also need to get healthy, but when we do, we should have a deep team and have a good chance to do really well again this year."

C/J-I is not the wrestling powerhouse that Chinook is, but the Hawks still managed to score some points against teams from Class AA, Class A and Class B. Sam Deffinbaugh was the top finisher for the Hawks, coming in sixth place at 160 pounds, while Cory Kelly was seventh at 182 pounds.

Next up for area teams is the Chinook Mixer Friday afternoon and the Scottie Invitational Saturday afternoon in Glasgow.