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Havre High wrestlers claim fifth consecutive team championship
A collage of Havre's five individual Class A state champions following Saturday night's historic night for the Blue Ponies at the All-Class State Wrestling Tournament at the Metra in Billings. With five champions and seven in the finals, Havre tied one of its many previous state tourney records.
The Havre Blue Ponies captured their fifth straight Class A state championship, and their 13th team title in school history Saturday night at the Metra in Billings.
Havre's Jase Stokes locks up with Whitefish' Travis Catina during their 205-pound state title bout Saturday night in Billings. Stokes and teammate Parker Filius both became four-time individual state champions.
Billings - The Havre High wrestling made history at the 2017 All-Class State Wrestling meet and the Blue Ponies did it in more ways than one.
Havre won a school record and tied a Class A record by winning its fifth consecutive team championship. HHS placed a total of 11 wrestlers in the meet, all of them in the top five on its way to 257.5 points. Columbia Falls was second with 131 and Glendive was third with 125.
"I was really pleased with the ways the kids competed," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "It's bittersweet, but this group was a lot of fun."
While the Ponies made history as a team, Parker Filius and Jase Stokes made history as individuals, as each Havre senior captured his fourth individual state championship, making them members of the exclusive club of four-time state champions in Montana.
Stokes, who won the 205-pound weight class, was technically the first Havre wrestler ever to do so. But Filius followed him up a little more than an hour later, when he won the final at 145 pounds.
"It was kind of anti-climactic," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "We were confident going in that if we just wrestled, that everything else would take care of itself."
In addition to Filius and Stokes, the Ponies had three other wrestlers capture individual championships inside the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra Saturday. One of them was senior Dane Flammond, who finished third in his two previous trips to state. He won the 160-pound final via technical fall.
The other individual champions for Havre were Quinn Reno, a freshman, who defeated another Havre freshman, Cameron Pleninger in the final at 103 pounds. Martin Wilkie, a sophomore, also won his second straight individual title, finishing first at 126 pounds.
Lane Paulson joined Pleninger with a second-place finish of his own after losing the 120-pound championship match. Four others wound up on the podium for Havre as Connor Harris (132) and Mason Dionne (152) each finished third, Ryan Stewart (113) was fourth and Jared Sienkowski (HWT) was fifth. Austin Ratliff and Marc Ramirez each notched two wins apiece and were the other wrestlers who scored points for HHS.
"It has been awesome. It will probably be some of the best years of my life," Parker Filius said. "To go out here and compete with guys that I have been around since I was 5, 6 or 7 years old and win a team title, that was a lot of fun."
According to the MHSA website, 27 wrestlers had won four individual championships prior to this past weekend's tournament and now with Filius and Stokes, along with two others, that number is 31. HHS also finished in the top three for the 12th consecutive season.
As a team, the Ponies have now won 13 team titles, which is second all time in the state behind only Butte High, which has 17. The team championship was No. 12 for Scott Filius as head coach of the Ponies, which ties him with Missoula Sentinel coaching legend Jug Beck for the second most all time in the state.
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