HHS grapplers take third at Class A Duals

The Havre High wrestling team was hoping to get another shot at a dual against defending state champion Sidney this past weekend at the Class A Duals in Belgrade, one of the final tune-ups for the postseason.

However, the Blue Ponies came up one round short of the finals, as Havre was defeated by Frenchtown in the semifinals 39-25. Yet, Havre turned around and was able to score a two-point win over Polson in the dual for third-place, allowing HHS to finish third with an overall dual record of 7-1 combined over the course of Friday and Saturday.

“I thought that we had a good weekend,” HHS head coach Beau LaSalle said. “We had a few guys that were sick and so we had an open weight at 285 and 170, so that hurt us a bit. We also had some young guys fill in for us and they wrestled well. Everyone who wrestled did as much as they could to try and win the dual.”

On the first day of the tournament, Havre took part in group competition and the Ponies were in the same pool as Corvallis, Hamilton, Miles City and Belgrade and in those three preliminary duals, Havre dominated. The Ponies took down Corvallis by a score of 46-21, before knocking off Miles City 48-19. Hamilton also went down to the Ponies 45-18, while Havre also beat Belgrade 51-24. That win clinched the top spot in the group for Havre as it advanced into the championship bracket Saturday.

Havre took care of business in the first round of the single-elimination tournament, as the Ponies steamrolled Libby 50-11. Havre then knocked off Laurel, 42-33 in the quarterfinals, which set up a showdown with Frenchtown, the No. 3 team in the state.

The Broncs own some of the state’s elite wrestlers in Class A with Eli Warner (103 No. 2), Walker Dyer, the top-ranked wrestler at 113 and Jake Bibler, who is also top-ranked at 120 pounds. That strength showed Saturday in Belgrade, as they were able to get past Havre in the semifinals 39-25.

After falling to Frenchtown in the semis, Havre turned things around and locked up third place with a 36-34 win over Polson, another team that should contend for a trophy at the state tournament. In the championship, Sidney was able to win its second consecutive championship at the Class A duals with a 53-19 win over the Broncs.

Havre wasn’t able to get to the championship at the Class A duals, but that didn’t stop a number of individuals from putting together stellar performances. Three-time state champion Martin Wilkie had a perfect record at 145 pounds. Mick Chagnon, who is No. 1 at 103 pounds, won all of his matches at that weight class, yet lost two at 113 pounds.

At 152 pounds, Connor Harris also went unbeaten and in the process, scored a significant win over John Mears, the defending state champ and top-ranked wrestler at 152 pounds. Mears had beaten Harris in other meetings between them this season, even as recently as last weekend at the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic. But this time around, Harris was the victor.

“He pinned him in the first period of our dual,” LaSalle said. “So that was big and he had some really good matches.”

Austin Ratliff also went undefeated at 205 pounds and built on his recent momentum by knocking off the fourth-ranked wrestler in his weight class. Ratliff’s win over Tyler Harms of Miles City was his second over an opponent ranked ahead of him in as many weeks. Ratliff also defeated Justin Mays of Ronan, the No. 1 guy at 205 pounds in the most recent poll, last weekend in Missoula.

“Austin is just finally starting to put it all together,” LaSalle said. “He has been wrestling really well and he had another really good weekend. Now he has beaten everyone ranked ahead of him outside of a kid from Livingston that he hasn’t seen yet.”

The Ponies will take part in their final regular season meet this weekend, as they will travel to Malta for the Malta Invitational Saturday. The following Saturday (Feb. 2) Havre will head to Miles City to take part in the Eastern A Divisional, where the Ponies will try to qualify as many wrestlers as possible for the All-Class state wrestling tournament in Billings Feb. 7-8.