State Wrestling 2016: Havre finishes off a 4-Peat

BILLINGS -- Coming into Saturday at the All-Class State wrestling meet, the Havre Blue Ponies may not have had the Class A state championship wrapped up, but by the time the semifinal round was complete, the team competition was over and done with.

That's because Havre dominated the round, winning seven of eight matches and getting seven wrestlers: Martin Wilkie (120), Logan Pleninger (132), Kody Pribyl (138), Parker Filius (152), Jase Stokes (182), Tyler Schaub (205) and Travis Adams (285) into the finals. That effort essentially wrapped up the team competition, which Havre ended up winning without much of a challenge, finishing with 213 points. Polson was second with 147.5 and Hardin was third with 114.5.

"This is a great group of kids," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "They are fun to be around. They care for each other, they work hard, they are a class act, they work hard on and off the mat and they are fun to be associated with."

After dominating the first round on Saturday morning at the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra in Billings, the Ponies took a commanding 80-point lead in the Class A team race and never looked back en route to a school-record tying fourth-consecutive state title.

"All we did was tie the record," Filius said. "Next year, we need to break it."

Yet, even though there was no drama in the team competition, there was still plenty of drama on finals night.

Although, Parker Filius, Stokes, Adams and Wilkie captured individual titles with relative ease, Schaub was tied midway through the third period before a false start, an escape point and a two-point takedown, earned the sophomore the win and his first individual title.

However, the best match of the day and the tournament featured Pleninger against Clayton Carter of Laurel. The two competitors laid it all on the line in a classic battle that went to multiple overtime periods, before a false start violation gave Carter the 3-2 victory.

"It sucks how it ended, but it was my fault," Pleninger said. "It happens to us all I guess, you can't win them all."

Despite each losing in the finals, coach Filius was glowing in his praise of seniors Pleninger and Pribyl, who also finished second at 138 pounds. Both did just about everything possible in their high school careers, yet win a state title.

"They have been a pleasure to coach," Filius said. "They have been with me for four years and right now, it's just kind of burns, so that's where I am at right now."

While Havre had seven wrestlers make the finals, with five champs and two runner-ups, the Ponies also got a third-place finish from Dane Flammond and a sixth-place finish from Ryan Stewart.

The other significant development from Saturday for Havre was the fact that both Parker Filius and Stokes won their third-straight titles, which will set them up for a run at being the first four-time champions in the history of Pony wrestling.

"It would be a lot of fun, but there is three," Coach Filius said referring to Parker, Stokes and the freshman Wilkie, who has a chance to be a four-timer as well now. "If we are going to make it two, we might as well make it three."