BACK TO THE MAT

The Havre High wrestling team hits the mat once again. This year, the cycle continues, with the team bringing in some new faces, returning familiar ones and, as always, graduating some, too.

But, the constant cycle of new wrestlers has never hindered the Blue Ponies much. Many of the Havre wrestlers throughout Pony history have made their mark on Class A. Now, the legacy will look to continue, but with lower numbers.

Under second-year head coach Beau LaSalle, the Ponies will be looking to make it back to the state title, starting with the Havre Invitational today and Saturday at the Havre High Gymnasium.

With the season here, LaSalle is excited to be back on the mat with the team.

"I'm excited," said LaSalle. "We got a little bit of a younger team than we had in the past and I'm excited to see what these guys can do. Biggest thing for us to succeed is to keep working hard every day and staying healthy. Our numbers are a little bit down, so keeping everybody healthy throughout the season will be a big key for us."

There is some déjà vu happening for Havre once again, as it will not be starting the season as defending champs, once again taking second-place at the state tournament last season behind the Sidney Eagles. Even with the second-place finish, last season the Ponies still produced a lot of individual champions, including four-time champ Martin Wilkie, who graduated last year.

Havre will likely meet Sidney once more in February, but the Eagles and Ponies will find themselves against each other before then in the Lewistown/Glendive/Sidney dual Jan. 4 in Sidney.

Havre will be returning to compete in the CMR Holiday Classic Dec. 20-21, too. It is many of the wrestlers' favorite meet to attend and provides the Blue Pony grapplers with some great competition, especially since many Class AA schools will likely be attending, as well.

LaSalle is looking forward to being back at the CMR Holiday Classic.

"I'm looking forward to it," LaSalle said. "We haven't been to that in a few years now. They run a great tournament and a tough tournament. I think it's one of the toughest tournaments in the state of Montana."

Other meets on the schedule include the Butte Central Mixer Dec. 12, the Mining City Duals Dec. 13-14, the Cut Bank Invite Jan. 10-11, the Missoula Invite Jan. 17-18, Glasgow Jan. 21, the Class A Duals Jan. 24-25, Malta Feb. 1, Eastern A Divisionals in Lewistown Feb. 8 and Class A State.

LaSalle is happy to see a lot of challenges throughout the 2019-2020 schedule and looks forward to his team putting in work at each of them.

"I like our schedule," said LaSalle. "I think year in and year out we got one of the toughest schedules in the state and I think we do a pretty good job between the program and the school to maybe have some peaks and valleys during the season. We have some tough ones followed by some tournaments that aren't quite in deep. Not that any of them are easy. There's some really tough kids and tournaments, with the depth of the tournament, they got it set up in a good way."

In LaSalle's second year, he has some smaller numbers than the previous year, but there are many tough wrestlers who will be returning, including senior Connor Harris. Harris (152) has placed third three years in a row at state and now intends to make it further in his last year.

The other grapplers of the lineup include returning state champion Mick Chagnon (113), Hunter Velk (120), Riley Pleninger (126), three-time All-State senior Cameron Pleninger (132), Dominick Perkins (132), Kendall Pleninger (138), Kale VanCampen (145), Julius Rosette (145), Randy Tommerup (152), returning All-State sophomore Orion Thivierge (160), Wyatt Hansen (160), Brayden Stadell (182) and Cole Adams (285).

There's a variety of wrestlers on the Blue Pony roster. A good group of matmen and some big bodies will have a lot of impact on the year, including the season-opener at home. The Havre Invite means a lot to the wrestlers and to have it open their season is always a good feeling.

LaSalle is happy to start the year off at home, as well.

"I'm pretty excited," LaSalle said. "We don't get to wrestle in our home gym often, so when we do it's exciting and fun. I'm just excited to see these guys wrestle somebody besides each other, and they've been going hard here the last week-in-a-half to two weeks. I'm excited to see what they can do against other competition."

The season opener for the Ponies will look to be an intense start to the season and being on their home mat will definitely bring about some confidence, too. Another tough season of wrestling is back in action and it starts with the Havre Invitational today and Saturday in the Havre High Gymnasium. Saturday's invite starts at 9 a.m.