Ponies get high quality competition

The Havre High wrestling team has been one of the best in Montana for years. And for years, the Blue Ponies have struggled to find teams that can consistently challenge them, which is why this weekend, they are headed out of state.

For the second straight year and for the first time with their full varsity squad, the Ponies will compete in the ultra-competitive Tri-State Wrestling tournament in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The tournament is a two-day event that begins Friday and concludes Saturday. It will be held at North Idaho College.

One thing that makes the tournament so appealing to HHS and head coach Scott Filius is the fact that it features wrestlers from Idaho, Washington and Oregon, as well as Montana. So in terms of in-season tournaments, there are few better than this one.

"I don't think that we could find a better tournament to compete in," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "You get to face the best from Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana."

So far this season, the Ponies have dominated the competition. HHS opened its year with a dominant first-place finish at the Havre Invitational, besting Class AA schools Great Falls and CMR to take home the team title.

Last week, the Ponies took home their third-consecutive team title at the Mining City Duals in Butte and won duals over six Class AA schools in the process and not a single one of them was closer than 15 points.

That is part of the reason why the Ponies are looking forward to some new competition this week and heading to Coeur d'Alene instead of Great Falls for the annual CMR Holiday Classic. Last season, the Ponies split their team and wrestled varsity guys at both meets. This year that will not be the case.

"It will be fun to have everyone go," Filius said. "Last year, we had the flexibility to let the kids choose, but this year, we just kind of made it a priority because it was such a good experience."

The varsity wresters will all compete in Idaho and a number of Havre wrestlers will return for a second straight year. Overall, the Ponies placed four wrestlers at the meet a year ago and finished 15th overall with far less than a full team. The top returners that placed are Parker Filius and Kody Pribyl, who each finished fourth.

Filius (152) and Pribyl (138) are among those that will be expected to do well this weekend for Havre, but Travis Adams, who competes at the heavyweight spot, Tyler Schuab, who wrestlers at 205 and Jase Stokes, who wrestles at 182 pounds, also have high expectations going in.

The Ponies are still two wrestlers short of a full lineup with no wrestler at 103 or at 126 pounds, but outside of that fact, this Havre lineup is stacked from top to bottom. Ryan Stewart will wrestle at 113 pounds for Havre, while impressive freshman Martin Wilkie will wrestle at 120.

Following the open spot at 126, Logan Pleninger will wrestle at 132 pounds, followed by Pribyl at 138 and Filius at 152. At 160 pounds will be Dane Flammond and in the 170-pound class it will be Walter White, followed by Stokes, Schaub and Adams.

"It's a deep tournament," Scott Filius said. "You get a 64-man bracket at each weight and we really don't have anything in the state of Montana that replicates it. It's really going to be a lot of fun. It's the best high school tournament that we can get to."

Last year, 67 schools took part in the tournament with Post Falls, Idaho taking home the team title with 220 points. Short-handed Havre was 15th, and even though the Ponies will give up more weights than normal, HHS should push its way closer the top.

"I really have no idea how we will do team-wise," Filius said. "We are actually giving up five weights because they use the national weights. But, we have some kids that did really well last year. We didn't have anyone reach the finals, so hopefully we can get there this year."

The tournament begins Friday and will conclude with the finals Saturday evening. All the matches will be held at North Idaho College.