Chris Peterson Column: It will be a fun final month of Blue Pony wrestling

Unlike some places, in Havre, wrestling is a major sport, taking its place right alongside football and basketball.

And while the Havre Blue Ponies always attract plenty of attention, this season, there has been a little extra attention paid to the team, particularly with the transition from legendary head coach Scott Filius to Beau LaSalle.

Obviously, coaching at any level is a big deal. But in high school sports, teams generally don't win without a championship-level coach. It's just hard to do and maintaining success over a long period of time is even harder. What the Ponies achieved under Filius was no accident.

But now, that torch has been passed, and even though we have only had a short time to judge LaSalle, the program appears to be in good hands with the former Havre High and MSU-Northern standout in control.

Of course, not everything has gone the way the Ponies have wanted to this season and there have been some bumps in the road, such as the Mining City Duals, where Havre was unable to defend its title or even the Havre Invitational, which saw Great Falls High walk away with the team crown instead of Havre.

Yet, even under Filius, the Ponies didn't win every tournament, not even the Havre Invitational every year. But what Havre has done under LaSalle this season is continue to improve and continue to compete.

"Our goal is to be at the top in February," LaSalle said before the season. "That's where our focus is and trying to wrestle our best when February rolls around."

When the Ponies hosted Sidney for a dual last month, a matchup that featured the top two teams in Class A, with the Eagles being No. 1 and the Ponies being No. 2. Sidney walked away victorious. But that didn't stop a tired Havre squad from turning around and knocking off Great Falls High to send the seniors out with a win on their senior night.

And in an even better example of the Ponies' ability to rise to the occasion, when Havre traveled to the prestigious Tri-State wrestling tournament in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho - one of the most challenging wrestling tournaments in the Northwest - Havre finished fifth, placing higher than any other team from Montana, including Kalispell, the defending Class AA state champions.

What was even more impressive about that weekend for the Ponies was the fact that Martin Wilkie dominated the way he did. Wilkie, who is a senior and a three-time state champion, wrestled as well over that weekend as any Havre wrestler in recent memory, not even allowing a point in one of the toughest tournaments in the Northwest. Wilkie won three of his matches by pin in less than 35 seconds and won the other two matches 17-0 and 12-0.

It was also fitting that Wilkie won the Tri-State title joining Parker Filius and Jase Stokes as the only Havre wrestlers to do so. Next month in Billings, at the All-Class state tournament, he will look to join them as the only four-time champs in the history of Havre wrestling.

Wilkie is reason enough to follow this team over the next month as it concludes its season but if the Ponies are going to win back the Class A state championship from Sidney, Wilkie isn't who you should keep an eye on - instead, Pony fans need to watch guys like Connor Harris, Lane Paulson, Mick Chagnon, Austin Ratliff, Cameron Pleninger and Marc Ramirez. All of those guys except Ratliff have placed at the state tournament and Ratliff just missed out on doing that last season, so the potential is there and any state championship runs starts with them. Wilkie's so good, his points are basically already in the bank. For Havre, it will be a matter of who can climb to the top of the podium alongside him.

Harris has two third-place finishes at state, Paulson has reached the finals, Pleninger has reached the finals and Chagnon also placed in his freshman season a year ago. So they all have the ability to score significant points at the state tournament and, along with others like Ramirez, Ratliff, and even youngsters like Riley Pleninger and Orion Thivierge who have point-scoring potential of their own, Havre is a team with big upside and plenty of room to grow.

That's what will make this last month of the season exciting. Havre is a young team, with a young coach and it's also a team that hasn't fired on all cylinders quite yet. There have been signs sure, but the Ponies best wrestling is still ahead of them and this weekend in Missoula, at the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic, we will get our next glimpse of what this team can do.

Few tournaments will challenge the Ponies like the Jug Beck. It features all the top teams from Montana, as well as some other elite competition from the Northwest. Outside of the All-Class state tournament, nothing in Montana compares to it.

It will be a gauge for where this team is at and what they can achieve, as will the Class A duals next week and the Eastern A Divisional the week before state. Over the next few weeks, we will learn a lot about the Havre wrestling team, but whether or not this team will win yet another state championship, isn't a question we will have an answer to until February 8-9 in Billings.

What we do know is that this team has a chance. It has a chance to win championships, both on the team and indivudal levels and watching it try to reach its full potential, will be, in the words of Scott Filius and LaSalle - fun.