Ponies grapple Bison tonight

The Havre High wrestling team has had an outstanding season when it comes to duals and tonight the Blue Ponies will look to finish a near-perfect record with a win over arch-rival Great Falls High.

The dual, which features Havre, the defending Class A state champion and Great Falls High, the defending Class AA champion, will be tonight inside the HHS gymnasium with the first match set for 6 p.m.

In addition to it being the final dual of the year for the Ponies, it will also be senior night for HHS. And even though the Ponies will get to wrestle in front of the hometown fans one more time at the Eastern A Divisional Feb. 7, seniors Travis Adams, Kody Pribyl and Logan Pleninger will each be honored for their contributions to the program tonight.

"You have Travis Adams, who has placed three times (at state) and won a state championship," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "And then you have Logan Pleninger, who has placed three times and Kody Pribyl, who has placed three times. All those guys have been parts of the last three state championship teams and have come up through our club program. They have also been running around with me in the summers for a long time. They are just a real special group of kids."

The Ponies, who have yet to face the Bison in a dual this season, did defeat them last year in Havre and will be looking to send their seniors out in style with another triumph over the Bison.

"They are just always so well coached," Filius said of the Bison. "Their kids just don't make mistakes from an effort point of view. If they are capable, they are going to give you a great match and that's why we schedule them as often as we do because it's mutually beneficial. Their kids are going to scrap up and compete and hopefully our kids will do the same."

One thing that will help the Ponies against Great Falls High, which just finished third in the Class AA duals this past weekend, is the fact that they will have 12 wrestlers in the lineup, instead of 11, which they had earlier in the season.

Havre has lost just once in dual competition this season, with a loss a few weeks ago to Bozeman. But in that dual, Havre was open at two weights and against the Bison, it will open at just one (103 pounds).

The Ponies will boast their normal lineup for the dual, as well as Lane Paulson, who now mans the 126-pound weight class for HHS after missing most of the season due to an injury. The rest of the lineup features Ryan Stewart at 113 pounds, Martin Wilkie at 120 pounds, Pleninger at 132 pounds, Pribly at 138 pounds, Jazz Schroeder at 145 pounds, Parker Filius at 152 pounds, Dane Flammond at 160 pounds, Walter White at 170 pounds, Jase Stokes at 182 pounds, Tyler Schaub at 205 pounds and Adams in the heavyweight class.

While the Ponies are excited to take on the Bison, with divisionals and state right around the corner, their focus is still preparing for the two big meets at the end of the season.

"We are starting to specialize on kids at this point in the year," Filius said. "We have our offense and we know what we are going to do on bottom. Now, you take a couple of kids and start working on fixing each kid's flaws instead of trying to fix the whole room's. It makes it a fun time of year because you really to get make a difference with each individual kid."

Havre and Great Falls High will kick off their dual inside the HHS gymasnium tonight at 6. HHS travels to the Malta Invite Saturday.