Havre wrestling set for the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic

Coming off a first-place finish at last weekend's Cut Bank Booster Invitational, the Havre High wrestling teams will look to carry that performance into this weekend at the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic in Missoula. Along with other schools from Montana, the Blue Ponies will compete against schools from Washington, Wyoming and Idaho, so HHS head coach Beau LaSalle looks forward to seeing how his wrestlers can do against them.

"(We just want to) go out and compete hard and wrestle better than we did last weekend. Just improve every week and get to see some high level competition," LaSalle said. "Some different competition that we haven't seen yet this year. Some different guys and girls, different schools we haven't seen and it's just always a tournament with high level competition so we're just looking for our guys to go out and compete hard for six minutes at a time."

From Washington, the Ponies will wrestle against Mead and University High. The Ponies will also compete against Coeur d'Alene and Lake City from Idaho and Powell and Sheridan from Wyoming. From Montana, the Ponies will wrestle against schools such as Belgrade, Bozeman, Columbia Falls, Lewistown, Missoula Big Sky and Whitefish. Out of all these teams, LaSalle believes Kalispell should be the favorites in the tournament.

"They're pretty much heads and tails above everybody right now with their squad," LaSalle said. "They're just solid throughout their lineup and they're the heavy favorite to win the tournament."

After taking home first place at last weekend's tournament, several Ponies will look to continue their success in this weekend's tournament. Matt Lemer will look to do well again after taking first in the 113-pound weight class last weekend. Carson Harris will also look to take home another first-place trophy after doing so this past tournament at 132 pounds.

Other wrestlers that placed last weekend include Reed Mantle, Colter Solomon, Justin Awtrey, Reinhard Bold, Landen Caplette, Pierce Caplette, Kale Van Campen and Tommy Lewis, so they will all be looking to place again this weekend in Missoula.

The HHS girls wrestling team will compete in the Hellgate tournament this Saturday in Missoula. At that tournament, the Ponies will compete against schools such as Anaconda, Belgrade, Billings West, Chester-Joplin-Inverness, Columbia Falls, Gallatin, Hamilton, Missoula Hellgate, Polson, Thompson Falls and Valier.

In the girls tournament, the Ponies will look to do well again after taking first in last weekend's Cut Bank tournament. McKenna Caplette finished first at 114 pounds and Aubree Erickson took first at 145 pounds last weekend, so they will look to pick up first-place trophies again this weekend. Other Ponies looking to do well again this weekend after placing in their last tournament include Brooklyn Wilting, Maleigha Azure, Clara Laird, Angelina Caplette and Aliyah Stiffarm.

The Ponies only have a few more tournaments this season before the postseason gets rolling in February. As the Ponies work on improving over the course of the season, LaSalle just wants to see his wrestlers continue to build up their confidence in this weekend's tournament.

"(I want to see) that belief that they can wrestle with anybody," LaSalle said. "No matter where they're from and no matter what their credentials are, that we're good enough to compete with anybody that they put out on the mat in front of us."

The HHS boys wrestling team will begin the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic in Missoula on Friday while the HHS girls wrestling team will compete in the Hellgate Girls Wrestling Tournament in Missoula Saturday.