Havre wrestling heads to Butte for Mining City Duals

After a first-place finish at the Havre Invitational to open the season last weekend, the Havre High wrestling team will be looking to carry over that performance into the Jim Street Mining City Dual in Butte this weekend. But if the Blue Ponies want to finish high again, they will need to improve from their performance to open the season.

"I think we just keep getting better each week," HHS head coach Beau LaSalle said. "You got to put last week behind you and move to the next week and just continue getting better at the little things and getting better in shape and just keep improving each week."

This weekend's competition will be a dual tournament. On Friday, Havre will dual other schools in pool play. The winner of each pool will then compete in a bracket tournament Saturday.

There will be seven pools on Friday. Havre will compete in pool five against Helena Capital, Polson and Gallatin High School. Polson is a Class A team while Gallatin and Helena are Class AA schools. LaSalle expects all the duals to be tough including Helena with its experienced team.

"I think they're all pretty formidable teams," LaSalle said. "I think they'll be pretty good duals."

Unlike last weekend, only the varsity team for Havre will play as the junior varsity and girls teams will not compete. The Ponies hope that their wrestlers can continue their strong starts to the season. Senior Orion Thivierge is coming off a first-place finish wrestling at the 170-pound weight class at the Havre Invitational last weekend. Other seniors coming off first-place finishes to open the year include Riley Pleninger and Randy Tommerup.

They will face many tough wrestlers Friday. After placing at state last year, Ryley Knutson returns to wrestle for Polson. Felix Peterson also hopes to build off last year where he placed at state for Gallatin. Helena Capital also had many wrestlers placed at state last year, so the Ponies will have their hands full Friday.

Many other schools will compete Friday for a chance to play Saturday. In pool one, Browning, Flathead, Hamilton High School and Missoula Big Sky/Loyola Sacred Heart will dual one another. In pool two, Lewistown, Columbia Falls, Billings West and Glacier (Kalispell) will wrestle and in pool three, Cut Bank, Belgrade, Billings Skyview and Great Falls High will go at it.

In pool four, another Great Falls High team will wrestle against Helena, Missoula Sentinel and the Butte High School junior varsity team. In pool six, Bozeman, Missoula Hellgate, Butte and Great Falls CMR will go at it and in pool seven, another Great Falls CMR team will wrestle against Ronan, Frenchtown and Billings Senior High School.

The weekend will get started with the Butte Central Mixer in Butte Thursday. The Mining City Duals will then begin Friday with pool play before the bracket tournament begins Saturday.