Ponies face gauntlet at CMR Holiday Classic

With two tournaments already in the books, the Havre High wrestling team is beginning to find its footing early in the season. Now the Blue Ponies head to their biggest tournament so far this season in Great Falls this weekend with the CMR Holiday Classic.

With the large tournament ahead of them, HHS head coach Beau LaSalle hopes to see his team continue to compete like they have all season.

"(We expect to) just go out, compete hard, hustle and just basically see where we're at in the big tournament," LaSalle said. "To get everybody in that big tournament environment, it'll just be fun and exciting to see how they handle that."

The Ponies will compete against many teams in the CMR Holiday Classic this weekend. Some of the tougher schools are Class AA schools such as Billings West and Flathead. Many other Hi-Line schools will compete in Great Falls this weekend such as Chinook, Chester-Joplin-Inverness and Harlem.

Familiar schools that the Ponies will wrestle against include Lewistown, Cut Bank, Miles City, Glendive and Laurel. Other Montana schools competing this weekend include Anaconda, Belgrade, Billings Skyview, Browning, Butte Central, Cascade, Choteau, East Helena, Glasgow, Hamilton, Shleby, Whitefish and Wolf Point. Mead and Newport also come from the state of Washington to compete this weekend. With so many schools at the tournament this weekend, LaSalle knows that all of his wrestlers will have a long and tough road ahead of them.

"They're all going to be tough. There's no easy weight at this tournament," LaSalle said.

There will be many tough wrestlers that the Ponies will go at it with. Laurel's Ashton Ulschak wrestles at 132 pounds and is already 16-0 this season. Laurel also has Elijah Nose and Jace Buchanan who both have not lost a match this season.

Dylan Mikesell and Cameron Mikesell from Jefferson are both lightweights that are 9-0 this season. Leo Anderson also comes from Jefferson with a 12-1 record in the 113-pound weight class. Other Jefferson wrestlers off to strong starts this year include Brady Armstrong with his 12-2 record and John Amrstrong with his 11-2 record.

Against tough competition, several Ponies will look to continue their strong starts to their seasons. Orion Thivierge looks to continue his strong performance after finishing first in his weight class at the Havre Invitational and he went undefeated in his matches at the Jim Street Mining City Duals last weekend.

Randy Tommerup is also off to a strong start his senior season after taking first in his weight class at the Havre Invitational and he went 4-2 in his matches in last weekend's dual tournament in Butte. Senior Riley Pleninger has also had a similar performance this year with a first-place finish in Havre and a 4-2 record in his matches in Butte.

With last weekend off, the Havre junior varsity and girls teams will also wrestle in Great Falls this Saturday. Some schools with girls teams competing this weekend include Twin Bridges, Butte, Billings Skyview, Billings West, Cascade, Chinook, CJI, Cut Bank, Flathead, Hamilton, Poplar and Valier.

The Ponies will begin wrestling in the CMR Holiday Classic in Great Falls this Friday.