12
2014 CLASS A
February 2014
STATE WRESTLING CHAMPS
www.havredailynews.com
Ponies roll to Central A title Havre High crowns nine champions in Browning, will send 17 grapplers to state
Daniel Horton Havre Daily News sports writer gferguson@havredailynews.com At the Central A divisional wrestling tournament, the Havre High wrestling team did exactly what it expected to do. And even more important than the team title earned by Havre, the Blue Ponies are now one step closer to claiming yet another Class A state title. Saturday, the Blue Ponies competed against the rest of the Central A in Browning. The Ponies proved they are too deep and too talented to be knocked off their divisional throne with an impressive 296 team points. Belgrade finished second with 210, followed by Lewistown with 119, Browning with 88, and Livingston with a distant 77. Havre also made light work of
the shallow competition by placing each of its 17 wrestlers in the top five. That means the Ponies will take a full lineup of 17 grapplers to the state tournament. “Teams like Belgrade are just too short to keep up, they don’t have enough guys and their quality isn’t what it has been the last few years,” Havre High head coach Scott Filius said. “But the kids wrestled real well. We didn’t get a whole lot of matches and it is frustrating that there aren’t more kids out there. Now we just have to make sure we stay sharp in practice. But we took 17 kids and got them all qualified for state, so we are happy with that.” Individual title winners included Keegan Kennelly (106), Logan Pleninger (113), Grayson Brenna (120), Parker Filius (138), Kody Pribyl (145), Jase Stokes (152), Jake Williams (171), Jace Billy (195) and Travis Adams (220). Kennelly, Pleninger and Travis Adams all won by forfeit in the championships, while Billy defeated Belgrade’s Jaden Bryant by default. But as the Ponies did all weekend, several wrestlers dominated their
final match. Brenna earned a major decision over Chad Lander of Lewistown, 13-0, while Stokes earned a solid 7-1 decision over Noah Criner of Belgrade. Filius pinned Lyle Degen of Belgrade in just 1:15. Also in the finals, Pribyl narrowly escaped Thad Kucera of Lewistown with 5-4 decision, while Williams defeated Devin Blythe of Lewistown with a 5-4 decision. “All of our kids wrestled well in the championship round,” coach Filius said. “We had a couple of matches end up closer than they have been in the past, but it is hard to get excited about this divisional tournament. It just needs to be more competitive.” But the Ponies had four other individuals come up just short in the chipper. Dylan Stewart (126) suffered a 7-2 loss to Lewistown’s Hunter Grover, finishing the weekend with a No. 2 finish, while Thomas Gruber (132) also lost 6-4 to Belgrade’s Jarrett Deegan for a second-place finish. Jared Laux (160) was pinned by Keevan Pickle of Belgrade, and Tyler Adams (220) gave up a forfeit win to his brother Travis for another
Blue Pony second-place finish. Dane Flammond (126), Gunnar Aageson (138) and Dustin Odegard (182) all placed third for the Ponies. John Chinadle also placed fifth for the Ponies, completing the lineup at an impressive 17 keeping their seasons alive and taking on the best of the best at state. “We didn’t have too many hiccups,” coach Filius said. “You always want to get everybody qualified, but you also want to come away healthy, and we did both of those things. We are going to ratchet it up another level moving forward, but you expect that as the season goes on.” The Central A champion Blue Ponies will now look to defend their Class A state title. Friday and Saturday the Ponies will face the rest of the Class A’s best at the Metra Park’s Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings. Central A at Browning
Team scores – 1. Havre 296.5; 2. Belgrade 210.5; 3. Lewistown 119; 4. Browning 88; 5. Livingston 77 Finals 98 – Sawyer Degan, BEL p. Brandon Rockwell, BEL 5:19 106 – Keegan Kennelly, HAV, bye.
113 – Logan Pleninger, HAV, bye 120 – Grayson Brenna, HAV, md. Chad Lander, LEW 13-0 126 – Hunter Grover, LEW, d. Dylan Stewart, HAV, 7-2 132 – Jarrett Denen, BEL, d. Thomas Gruber, HAV, 6-4 138 – Parker Filius, HAV, p. Lyle Degen, BEL, 1:15 145 – Kody Pribyl, HAV, d. Thad Kucera, LEW, 5-4 152 – Jase Stokes, HAV, d. Noah Criner, BEL, 7-1 160 –Keevan Pickle, BEL, p. Jared Laux, HAV, :49 171 – Jake Williams, HAV, d. Devin Blythe, LEW, 5-4 182 – Ethan Blythe, LEW, p. Raven Cunningham, BEL, 1:09 195 – Jace Billy, HAV, by default over Jaden Bryant, BEL 220 –Travis Adams, HAV, by forfeit over Tyler Adams, HAV 285 – Peter Townes, LIV, p. Jordan Murillo, BEL 4:51
Third place 98 – Kai Krumweide, LEW, bye 106 – no matches 113 – no matches 120 – Shade Noble, BEL, tf Haden Mushrush, LIV, 16-1 126 – Dane Flammond, HAV, p. Isaac Wippert, BRN :46 132 – Billy Birdwell, LEW, d. Calvin Racine, BRN, 4-2 138 – Gunnar Aageson, HAV, p. Chris Swanson, LIV, 3:53 145 – Zeus Rutherford, BRN, md. Braden Fitzgerald, LIV, 13-2 152 – Brandon Gilham, BRN, p. Clayton Linville, LIV, 2:08 160 – Jordan Perino, LIV, d. Bradley Denton, LEW, 6-0 171 – Grady Blewett, BEL, d. Kiin Salois, BRN, 5-3 182 – Dustin Odegard, HAV, d. Cody Lucke, BRN, 4-1 195 – William Ollinger, BRN, d. John Chinadle, HAV, 5-1 220 – Bryce Blumenschein, BEL, bye 285 – Terydon Hall, BRN, p. Cameron Carter, BEL, 2:14.
21
2014 CLASS A
February 2014
STATE WRESTLING CHAMPS
www.havredailynews.com
Champs Again: Ponies win tough Cut Bank Invitational Healthy Havre High wrestling team places 14, crowns three champions in Cut Bank Daniel Horton
Havre Daily News sports writer gferguson@havredailynews.com Having a healthy and full lineup makes a big difference in prep wrestling, and having both of those things back in their favor, the Havre High grapplers were back to looking as impressive as any team in the state. A week ago at the Bozeman Invitational, the Central A Blue Ponies finished in eighth place as a team. Due to some sickness and injury, the team was less than 100 percent. But coming away with yet another championship team finish over the weekend, the Ponies are back on the rise, and close to hitting full stride once again.
Friday and Saturday, the Ponies were in Cut Bank for the Cut Bank Invitational. The Ponies finished No. 1 overall with an impressive 295 team points. Great Falls High was in a distant second with 256, while CMR finished in third place with 187. “We had a real good turnout, especially compared to the week before,” Havre High head coach Scott Filius said. “But now Great Falls High is going through the same thing. Last week they were healthy, had everybody in the lineup, and wrestled at a high level while we were shorthanded. And our guys didn’t necessarily wrestle at a high level last week. But this week, Great Falls High had some kids out and the guys they had were flat. We had all of our guys this week and our guys wrestled at a high level, so it does make a big difference having everybody in the lineup.” And while some teams may be struggling, the HHS grapplers took full advantage and turned in a very dominating performance. Overall, the Ponies placed 14 wrestlers in Cut Bank, including individual champions in Keegan Kennelly (106), Parker Fil-
Kennelly
Filius
ius (138) and Tyler Adams (220). Dylan Stewart (126), Kody Pribyl (145) and Jase Billy (195) also made the finals, but finished in second place. Logan Pleninger (113), Grayson Brenna (120), Jake Williams (170) and Travis Adams (285) all placed third, while Jase Stokes (152), Dustin Odegard (182) and John Chinadle (195) placed fourth, and Thomas Gruber (132) finished fifth. Tate Munyon (98), Dane Flammond (126) and Jared Laux (160) also performed well but didn’t place amongst the tough field of wrestlers. Pushing individuals deep into
T. Adams
tournaments is always the goal of HHS and is the only way to consistently win these big tournaments. And if the Ponies can continue to wrestle well, place a dominating 14 grapplers and continue to improve, then they should continue to dominate this season. “We competed and won a lot of close matches,” Filius said. “We were very disciplined on the edge this week, where as last week we were taking ourselves out of close matches and were very sloppy on the edge.” In the championship round, Kennelly earned an impressive 11-1 major decision over Trevor Moore.
Tyler Adams was also impressive with his pin of Eric Weaver in just 1:44. Filius also turned heads with his fall victory over growing rival Austin Shupe of Great Falls High. Filius pinned Shupe in 3:57. Shupe is still the only wrestler to defeat Filius this season. But the entire weekend was full of big matches and dominating results. On Friday alone, the Ponies recorded 19 wins by way of fall through the quarterfinals. And the Ponies didn’t waste much time for the most part. Stokes had a pin in the first round that took just 13 seconds, followed by a pin in the second round that took 34 seconds. Billy had two pins that took just 36 and 21 seconds, while Tyler Adams took down his second round opponent in 50 seconds. “Cut Bank has always been a real nice place to wrestle,” Coach Filius said. “But we also had a nice week of practice and came out sharp. The kids came out sharp in matches, too, and we were really on a roll. I was pleased.” Another tough weekend awaits the Ponies when they travel to the Missoula Invitational Friday and Saturday.