State Wrestling 2017: The Drive for Five

Over the years, the Havre High wrestling team has made plenty of history under head coach Scott Filius. But this weekend, the Blue Ponies, as both a team and as individuals, will have a chance to break new ground.

As a team, the Ponies will head to the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra in Billings in search of a school-record fifth straight Class A state championship. That's one record-setting possibility. The other is one that will captivate the entire audience at the All-Class state tournament, as HHS seniors Parker Filius and Jase Stokes, try to achieve the rare feet of becoming four-time individual champions. They will also become the first Havre wrestlers to ever do so.

Havre's drive for five state championships, along with the four-time pursuit by Stokes and Filius will get underway Friday at 10 a.m., with the parade of athletes. Matches at the All-Class state tournament start at 10:20. Finals night is set to begin Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

"I try to think about this team like I do all the teams I have taken down there," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "We want to go down there and wrestle to our ability and hopefully good things will happen."

After cruising to another divisional championship last week in Glendive, the Ponies head to the Metra on a roll. They will bring three returning state champions into the competition Friday and a total of 14 wrestlers.

Havre was slated to bring 15 wrestlers to the tournament, but 182-pounder Tyler Schaub, who won an individual state championship in 2016, was a late scratch due to an injury he suffered during football season.

"He's pretty tore up about it," Filius said of Schaub. "But he just couldn't do it. He just wasn't healthy."

Schaub would have given Havre four returning state champions, instead HHS will wrestle with three: Parker Filius (145), Stokes (205) and Martin Wilkie (126).

Yet the Ponies have a slew of other wrestlers with previous success at the state tournament under their belt. Ryan Stewart placed as both a freshman and sophomore. He will man the 113-pound weight class this week. Dane Flammond, who wrestles at 160 pounds is another.

Flammond has finished third in his last two state tournament appearances. This time around, the senior is hoping to cap his career by doing a couple things he never has: wrestle on finals night and win an individual championship.

"I expect him to," Filius said. "I think with those three seniors (Flammond, Stokes, Parker Filius) you would expect them all to. Over the last two years, they have lost two matches. Dane lost at the state tournament once, two years in a row. The other kids haven't but that's a pretty good group of kids right there."

Flammond will be going for that elusive first championship, which is something some wrestlers never get. Stokes and Filius, on the other hand, are looking for their fourth championships, which would put them in elite company with the 27 previous wrestlers in the history of Montana high school wrestling to achieve the same feat. It would also set them apart as the first and only Havre wrestlers to do so. In all, four wrestlers are trying for the four-peat, with three in Class A. Stokes and Filius of course, as well as Belgrade's Sawyer Degan.

"It's pretty exciting," Parker Filius said. "But I am not just looking at it from a Havre perspective, other people have done it before. I am just going to try and treat it like another match."

Yet with everything Havre has achieved under coach Filius over the last two decades and with all the great wrestlers that have been part of the Pony program, it's hard to imagine any firsts still remaining.

"The big thing is that you can't have an off day," coach Filius said. "The first couple of years that (Stokes and Filius) went down there, they weren't necessarily favored in their weight class, they just went down there without any mental baggage and they continue to do that. But it's hard. I have had a lot of great kids that missed one year or another and these guys just haven't had an off day in the Metra yet."

When asked how he always avoided those off days, Parker Filius said: "I have been around wrestling a lot and my freshman year before the semis I made sure I looked up and saw everyone in the crowd and it just kind of put it in perspective that it's just a match like anywhere else and that's there a bunch of people here, so put on a show for them."

With Filius, Stokes, Wilkie and Flammond all favored to take home individual titles, Havre could have a chance at tying its previous record of five, which is how many HHS captured in 2015 and 2016.

Wilkie, who won as a freshman last season, will be looking to reach the halfway mark of becoming a four-timer in his own right. The journey also starts for much-heralded freshman Quinn Reno, who will wrestle at 103 pounds and could run into his teammate, Cameron Pleninger at some point in the same weight class.

In addition to Reno and Pleninger, the Ponies will have two other freshmen making their first appearance at state in Connor Harris (132) and Mason Dionne. Senior Jared Sienkowski will wrestle in the heavyweight division for HHS, while Lane Paulson, who will be at 120 pounds, is another strong candidate to make the podium Saturday night. Two other sophomores, Taylor Gopher at 170 pounds and Austin Ratliff, along with freshman Marc Ramirez (113), round out the rest of the roster for HHS.

If Havre had its full roster of 15 wrestlers, it would rank second outright among Class A teams. However, Columbia Falls leads the way with 16 entered. The Ponies are then tied with Polson and Frenchtown for the second highest number of entrants with 14. Hamilton, Dillon, Belgrade, Laurel, Sidney, Browning, Whitefish and Hardin all have at least 10.

But even with fewer wrestlers than Columbia Falls, Havre is the heavy favorite to win a fifth straight title and if it does, the only thing left to judge will be its place in history. Columbia Falls, Frencthown, Sidney, Glendive and Polson are all chasing the Ponies, but, none of them will likely catch up.

"I don't know if it's any more special than the year before," coach Filius said. "Without the year before or the year before that, you are never really on a streak so they are all special in their own right and every team is a little bit different, so it's fun in its own way."

Havre will begin its quest for a fifth straight Class A state championship Friday morning at 10:20 a.m. The championship round will take place Saturday at 3:30 p.m. All the action takes place in the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra in Billings.