State Wrestling 2017: Ponies stampede their way to historic finish

Billings – It's been clear for some time that the Havre High wrestling team was going to make history at the 2017 All-Class State Wrestling tournament and Saturday inside the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra, HHS fulfilled that prophecy.

The team competition was wrapped up early Saturday, after Havre advanced seven wrestlers to the finals. History was made when it was all said and done as HHS won its fifth straight team championship, a school-record, thanks to 257.5 points.

Yet, the most historical moment, came when Parker Filius and Jase Stokes, each completed their quests to become four-time individual state champions. And each of them did it, fittingly, with pins as Stokes won the 205-pound championship, while Filius won at 145 pounds.

"It was kind of anti-climactic," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "Coming in, we were confident those kids would do it and they went out and did it."

"It's a great feeling," Parker Filius said. "It took a lot of work for us to get this point and it feels really good."

Filius and Stokes were just two of the five total state champions Havre crowned on finals night. Stokes won the first at 205 pounds and was followed by Quinn Reno, who defeated Cameron Pleninger in all-Havre final to capture the 103-pound championship.

Sophomore Martin Wilkie captured his second consecutive championship at 126 pounds, setting the stage for Filius, who won at 145 pounds. Lastly, Dane Flammond captured his first individual title at 160 pounds, in his final high school match.

"It feels great," Flammond said. "Just to know all that hard work paid off. The team title feels great too. I don't think people realize how hard it is to do that."

In addition to Pleninger, who finished second to Reno at 103 pounds, Lane Paulson was also the runner-up at 120 pounds. Havre also placed four others wrestlers as Connor Harris (138) and Mason Dionne (152) each finished third, while Ryan Stewart was fourth and senior Jared Sienkowski was fifth.

"We wrestled really well in all the placement matches," Coach Filius said. "I am really happy with the kids, they had a great weekend, it was a lot of fun."

When the dust settled on the team competition, Havre won going away. HHS may have fallen short of its record 297 points, which it scored in 2015, but the Ponies racked up 257.5 points well ahead of second-place Columbia Falls, which finished with 131. Glendive was third with 125.

Havre didn't set a record for overall points, but set a school record with seven finalists and tied a school record with five individual champions.

For full coverage on the 2017 All-Class state tournament, see Monday's Havre Daily News.