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2014 CLASS A
February 2014
STATE WRESTLING CHAMPS
Havre Invite: Time to hit the mat Havre High grapplers make their season debut at home, against great competition Daniel Horton
Havre Daily News sports writer gferguson@havredailynews.com Every year, the Havre High wrestling team kicks off a new season with the Havre Invitational at the Havre High gymnasium. This year is no exception, and the Blue Ponies will do so while facing what could be one of the toughest opening weekends in the state. Today through Saturday, the Ponies will welcome in about 15 teams. Round-robin action was set to begin today at 1 p.m. and the day will end with the first round of the tournament portion of the weekend. Tournament action will continue Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Teams expected to attend this weekend include CMR, Lewistown, Cut Bank, Glasgow, Browning, Libby, Butte Central, Fort Benton, Chester/J-I, Chinook, Big Sandy, Malta and last year’s AA champion, Great Falls High.
The Ponies finished in second place last year in Havre, but claimed three individual championships and four second-place finishes. Grayson Brenna, Dylan Stewart and Tyler Adams all took first place, while Keegan Kennelly, Thomas Gruber, Jordan Schroeder and Jace Billy all finished in second. Other key wrestlers this weekend will include Kody Pribyl, Logan Pleninger, Travis Adams, Gunnar Aageson, Jason Kohler, Jake Williams and Dustin Odegard. Jase Stokes, Parker Filius and Dane Flammond will make their debut as standout Blue Pony freshmen. “We have some great teams coming in and some great individuals,” Havre High head coach Scott Filius said, “so we will really find out how tough we are right away. We try not to use practice time for the wrestle offs if we don’t have to. We will take care of that this weekend at the
weights that are contested, but we are pretty spread out and not really deep. We have about 25 kids, and we are spread pretty well top to bottom and are doubled up at only a couple weights.” Coach Filius will have a solid lineup to build off of after this weekend, including finding the right weights for all of his guys. But last year’s No. 2 finish at the beginning of the season turned into another Class A state title at the end of the season for the Ponies. And while state is the ultimate goal yet again, this weekend the focus is on going out and seeing competition. There are no glaring areas that need work just yet, that will come later, and Filius should get a nice preview of his guys, as they should see nearly seven matches each this weekend. “More than anything, we are looking for effort,” Filius said. “We don’t even know what we need to fix until we see them compete. And if we compete well, we can find areas of technique to work on. But until we get the kids competing, there isn’t a whole lot that we can secondguess. And we have some kids that will do just fine. We will do well at our tournament and most of our kids will get close to seven matches. By the end of the weekend we will have a good feel of what each kid needs.” The Ponies are an early favorite in the Central A and Class A ranks
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3
2014 CLASS A
February 2014
STATE WRESTLING CHAMPS
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Never A Doubt
Blue Ponies repeat as Class A wrestling champions Daniel Horton Havre Daily News sports writer
Havre Daily News/Daniel Horton Havre High's Keegan Kennelly lifts an opponent during the 2013 Class A state tournament last February in Billings. The Blue Ponies begin defense of their Class A state championship with the annual Havre Invite. again this, year, but the Ponies will put their talents on display for the first time this weekend. The annual
Havre Invite begins this afternoon and runs through Saturday evening at the HHS gymnasium.
BILLINGS — Repeating as a champion isn’t easy, but the Havre wrestling team sure makes it look like it is. For the second straight season, the Blue Ponies captured the Class A state championship, and they did it in record fashion. The Central A Blue Ponies were crowned the Class A state champions Saturday night in Billings. The Ponies turned in another great season all around under veteran head coach Scott Filius, but all that hard work was put on the line at the Rimrock Auto Arena at Metra Park in Billings. Havre claimed the most recent state title with an impressive 294.5 points, making this one of the best state runs in recent history for the Ponies, who have now won nine titles under coach Filius. The team score ties a previous best by the Ponies when they won the title back in 2009. And anything less could have resulted in a second-place finish for the Ponies, as Sidney put together a great run in its own right, finishing with 268.5 team points. Columbia Falls was a distant third with 172 points. The Ponies also won their second straight title with 17 grapplers, just like they took on the state last year with 17, as well. And all 17 of Havre’s wrestlers scored points for the second straight year, while the Ponies placed 13 grapplers and had four individual state champions. Havre also led the tournament wire-towire. “This definitely feels a lot better than when you’re not the winner,” coach Filius said after earning another team title. “The kids wrestled well, though. We took control of what we can control and we won the matches that we could win. What Sidney did was up to them, we couldn’t control what they did unless we went head to head, then
we had to perform, and I think we did.” Through Friday’s matches the Ponies got out to a nice lead, but it was never comfortable. HHS finished Friday with 143.5 points while Sidney kept hanging around with 122. And Saturday, Sidney got even closer. Heading into the consolation semifinals Sidney cut the Ponies’ lead to just over 11 points, 235.5 to 224.4. And a title wasn’t even a sure thing heading into the championship round, with the Ponies having six wrestlers searching for a title, compared to Sidney having eight individuals wrestling for titles. Keegan Kennelly (106), Parker Filius (138), Jase Stokes (152), Jace Billy (195), Tyler Adams (220) and Travis Adams (220) all earned their spots in the chipper for the Ponies, and a key matchup included Parker Filius taking on Jordan Stevens of Sidney. Filius pinned Stevens in 3:23 and helped seal the deal for the Ponies. Kennelly suffered an 8-5 decision loss, while Stokes won with a pin in 4:50, and Billy earned a 4-3 decision win. Tyler Adams also defeated younger brother Travis 14-5 giving Havre four individual champions, and all four were first-time champions. Logan Pleninger (113), Grayson Brenna (120) and Thomas Gruber (132) finished in third place. Kody Pribyl (145) and Dustin Odegard (182) finished in fourth place, while Jake Williams (170) and Dylan Stewart (126) finished in fifth place for Havre. Dane Flammond (126), Gunnar Aageson (138), Jared Laux (160) and John Chinadle (195) also wrestled well for the Ponies, recording at least one win each, but did not place. Gruber had a spectacular and heroic run for the Ponies. After losing to Glendive’s Dillon Tennant 2-1 in the quarterfinals Friday, Gruber won four straight matches, all by bonus points, and wound up third. It was the senior’s best fin-
Havre Daily News/Daniel Horton Havre High brothers Tyler, left, and Travis Adams stand side by side after their 220-pound Class A championship match Saturday night at the Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings. Facing each other in the championship match was just part of how dominant the Blue Ponies were on their way to a second consecutive Class A championship. ish at the state tournament, but he p l a c e d a l l f o u r y e a r s a n d was in arguably the toughest bracket every season. Brenna was heroic as well. After winning a state title as a sophomore, he was poised to repeat again this weekend. However, a gut-wrenching loss to Sidney’s Gresh Jones, now a three-time state champion, in the semifinals left Brenna out of the finals for the first time in his career. Still, he stormed back to finish third, a boost that helped keep the Ponies out in front of the Eagles. Pleninger did the same, falling to Sidney's Trace Jones in the semis, but rebounding to win twice and finish third. In all, Havre sent 10 wrestlers into the semifinals Saturday morning. Stewart was beaten by Columbia Falls’ two-time state champ Shonn Roberts, but rallied
to reach the podium for the third straight year. In his final season, Williams looked great in reaching the semis, but suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Libby’s Garrett Chapel, who went on to win the 170-pound title. Williams battled back to a solid fifthplace finish though. Pribyl also placed for the second straight season. He lost to one of the best overall wrestlers in the field in Anaconda’s Bryan Armstrong in the semis, but won his consolation semifinal on his way to a fourth-place finish. Odegard won three straight matches after losing in the quarterfinals. Havre was dominant from the opening bell as the Ponies won 14 first-round matches, all by pin, and had 15 of 17 wrestlers in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals. Kennelly didn’t have to wrestle in the first round, receiving a
bye at 106. “I think we wrestled well, and I think we were able to pull away in the title matches,” Parker Filius said. “One of the major things we were able to do was to get bonus points when we could, we talk about that at all of the team meetings before big tournament.” Havre won a total of 34 matches by fall, an impressive mark. Stokes also earned the Class A Quick Pin award with his four pins totaling just over 13 minutes of wrestling time. The Ponies also won seven matches with a major decision, and one match by technical fall. “We talk about pins all the time,” coach Filius said. “We talk about it all year long. The whole object of wrestling is to pin your opponent and, too often, guys want to hang on, and anytime you hang on something bad can happen.
We went lights out, and the kids did a nice job. “I know all of those pins helped us win,” Tyler Adams said. “But sometimes it’s just about who works harder, and coach Filius has done a great job making sure we all work hard.” Bonus points and great wrestling by all 17 wrestlers set the Ponies apart from the rest of the field. HHS entered the weekend with the No. 1 ranking and made sure not to let up or let it go. The result was another run of titles. Havre won four straight from 2007-2010. The Ponies also brought home a trophy from state for the 14th straight season, a remarkable streak in itself. And given what the Ponies showed this weekend in Billings, they are on their way to accomplishing that feat and another long win streak.