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2014 CLASS A
February 2014
STATE WRESTLING CHAMPS
www.havredailynews.com
State Wrestling 2014
Brothers, freshmen, four titles, what a night State champion Ponies showcased a little bit of everything on finals night Daniel Horton
Havre Daily News sports writer gferguson@havredailynews.com BILLINGS — And then there were four. Four Havre High wrestlers who outlasted all that Class A could throw at them at the state tournament in Billings. Overall, there were six Blue Pony wrestlers who battled it out for individual state titles at the Rimrock Auto Arena as the Ponies captured their second straight team title Saturday night. Sophomore Keegan Kennelly (106), freshman Parker Filius (138), freshman Jase Stokes (152), junior Jace Billy (195), senior Tyler Adams (220) and sophomore Travis Adams (220) all competed in the championship round. In a unique situation, Travis Adams took on older brother Tyler Adams in the finals as the Ponies won four of their six matches on final's night.
Individual title winners included Filius, Stokes, Billy and Tyler Adams. “They are all great kids, and those were great wins by a couple of freshmen, a junior and a senior,” Havre head coach Scott Filius said. “But all of the kids wrestled well, we even had some kids win it all last year, return and wrestle better this year, and not win it. I was pleased with our kids.” The championship round started at 220 pounds, meaning the brother versus brother showdown took center stage. Tyler Adams wasn’t going to take a defeat from his younger sibling, and controlled the match early on, taking a 10-3 lead after the first two periods with three takedowns, an escape, and a near fall. From there it was just making sure he didn’t get caught off guard before eventually earning the 14-5 decision and finishing the weekend 4-0. Tyler put together a stretch of three pins to get into the championship match. He first pinned Mikey Denision of Columbia Falls in :53 Friday morning, followed by a pin over Luke Channer of Corvallis in the quarterfinals, and a pin over Hunter Severson of Sidney in the semifinals. Travis finished 3-1, But the loss didn’t matter much to ei-
29
2014 CLASS A
February 2014
STATE WRESTLING CHAMPS
www.havredailynews.com
Kings of the Corral
Ponies begin the season by beating GFH for the Havre Invite title Havre High crowns five champions, gets 10 grapplers to the finals, places 20 on home mats Daniel Horton
Havre Daily News sports writer gferguson@havredailynews.com
Havre Daily News/Daniel Horton Havre freshman Jase Stokes, top, drives Columbia Falls' Bryan Schaffer to the mat during the 152-pound Class A state championship match Saturday night at the Rimrock Auto Arena. Stokes was one of two Pony freshmen to win Saturday night, and was part of four individual titles for Havre. ther brother as Tyler stressed just how much fun that moment was for both.
Havre Daily News/Daniel Horton Havre High senior Tyler Adams, left, stands up to a shot from younger brother Travis during their 220pound Class A state championsip match Saturday night at the Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings.
“This is a good feeling all around,” Tyler Adams said. “I like the fact that it was against my brother because it was a good way to go out. But he is a good wrestler. And we kind of talked about this match before, and I thought I would probably win. But it was about going out there and having fun, too. It is nice to win, but it is still about having fun.” Billy also had a standout match, and made sure he was ready for the challenge when it came time. Unlike the Adams brothers, Billy was the final weight class of the night, and without doing the math, there was no guarantee the Ponies had clinched a team title just yet. But after seeing the HHS freshmen get their wins, Billy thought it might be in the bag. But just to make sure, Billy knew he needed to get a win against his opponent, Belgrade’s Jaden Bryant. Billy got two points on a takedown in the first period, and took a 3-0 lead on an escape to start the third. Bryant answered with a takedown of his own; before an escape gave Billy a 4-2 lead to close the second. And the match came down to the final 12 seconds. Billy gave up a point for stalling, and quickly realized he couldn’t give up an escape or takedown if he wanted the win in regulation. The grapplers were on their feet in the final seconds and Billy hung on for dear life, both arms wrapped around Bryant’s
waist. It was a great finish after a thirdplace finish last year. “This is 100 times different, knowing that I am the best in the Class A and nobody can beat me,” Billy said. “But I knew I had to ride him out for those 12 seconds. I think if that match was one second longer he might have gotten out, but it took everything I had in me to hold on. “But we did awesome as a team,” Billy added. “And in the finals we really stepped up. I thought the team finish might come down to me, so I really put a lot of pressure on myself. But when I saw our freshmen getting pins, I knew I could take some of that pressure off myself. But I actually felt more relaxed coming into this match than any other. I had a little pressure at first, but I felt great going in.” Billy made light work of his opponents all weekend long before the tough title match. He pinned Andrew Burgess of Columbia Falls in 1:42, Michael Bumgarner of Hamilton in 3:34, and Monty Jessop of Corvallis in just 58 seconds in the semifinals. And Filius and Stokes may be freshmen, but they didn’t wrestle like it as they took down a lot of great talent to combine for an 8-0 weekend. Filius capped off his state run
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See Finals Page 5
If the way a prep wrestling team starts a new season is any indication of how the season will end up, then the Class A Havre Blue Ponies should be very excited. The Ponies, along with 14 other teams, made their season debut in Havre over the weekend, and as the host team, the Ponies stole the show at the Havre High Gymnasium when the annual Havre Invitational concluded Saturday evening. The two-day tournament began Friday afternoon and wasn’t over until more than 300 matches were in the books. Havre finished in first place with 282.5 points. That bettered last season’s performance when the Ponies took second place. The Class AA Great Falls High Bison, the defending state champions at that level, finished in a close second place with 272.5 points, and the Class AA CMR Rustlers finished in third place with 181. “We got a bunch of good quality matches, and all of the kids competed hard, so I was very pleased,” Havre High head coach Scott Filius said. “I really liked the fact that our kids competed when they were ahead and when they were behind. Once you get kids to do that, then you can work on your reshot, and your hand control, and all of that stuff. And we will work on that, but I am pleased with the effort.” The rest of the field was competitive over the two days, but struggled to keep pace with the three powerhouse programs. Cut Bank finished in third place (87), while Browning finished in fifth (80), Butte finished in sixth (70), Libby finished in seventh (55), Glasgow finished in eighth (45), Chinook finished in ninth (33), Lewistown finished in 10th (31), Fort Benton finished in 11th (29.5), both Big Sandy and Chester/J-I finished in 12th (3) and Malta finished last. The Blue Pony coaching staff was excited to get out of the practice room and into competition, and for the first time out, there isn’t
much to complain about. On the road to posting more than 282 team points, the Ponies put 10 kids into the finals. They grabbed five individual championships, five second-place finishes, three thirdplace finishes, two fourth-place finishes, and five fifth-place finishes. Keegan Kennelly (106), Grayson Brenna (120), Dylan Stewart (126), Jace Billy (195) and Tyler Adams (220) all won their finals matches, while Tate Munyan (98), Logan Pleninger (113), Thomas Gruber (132), Parker Filius (138), and Jake Williams (170) all came close, but landed just short in their finals matches. Kennelly was able to pin Butte Central’s Bryce Noctor in 2:55, while Brenna pinned Great Fall High’s Tyler Meyer in just one minute of action. Stewart pinned Kenton Evans of Great Falls High in 5:00, while Billy earned a 7-1 decision win over CMR’s Payton Sexe, and Tyler Adams earned a 4-0 decision over Great Falls High’s Eric Weaver. The five title winners were all undefeated on the weekend. The Ponies went head-to-head with Bison six times in the finals, splitting at 3-3. But the Ponies were able to stay out in front in the team totals with five more individuals in the finals — 20 total compared to the Bison’s 15. “I would say it was (a good team start),” Tyler Adams said. “I think that is what any team would like to see. Personally, for me, I just wanted to come out and see what I needed to work on, but for the other guys, too, I would say that is the same. The first weekend out we just needed to see where we could improve. I think I need to work on my pace; I wrestled too slow in some matches, and need to come out with more intensity. It is early in the season, but we got off to a good start.” In the championship round, Munyon lost an 18-0 major decision to CMR’s Deven Altenberg, while Pleninger lost a 10-4 decision to Butte Central’s Clay Stillwagon. Gruber lost to Great Fall High’s Tommy Mcmillen in a 6-3 decision, while Filius lost a 3-1 decision to GFH’s Austin Shupe, and Williams lost a 7-0 decision to GFH’s Cody Henderson. Both Gruber and Filius nearly added two more individual titles to the total, but ran into two of the state’s best. Gruber lost to Mcmillen after giving up a last-second re-
Havre Daily News/Lindsay Brown Havre High's Grayson Brenna, right, battles Great Falls High's Tyler Meyer in the 126-pound Havre Invitational championship Saturday at the HHS gymnasium. Brenna won the match, and the Ponies won the team title. versal during Friday’s round robin match, and couldn’t quite get past him Saturday. And in his first-ever high school match, Filius ran into Class AA state champion Shupe, Friday, losing in overtime after giving up a takedown. Filius also competed hard in the chipper, but Shupe escaped the HHS freshman with another narrow decision. “That is great for us,” Coach Filius said. “Anytime you run into a kid that is going to compete all six minutes then that is what we are after.” In third-place matches Kody Pribyl (145) won on a pin in 34 seconds, Dustin Odegard (170) won on a 6-2 decision, and Travis Adams (HWT) won on a pin in 1:44. Jase Stokes (152) lost after being pinned in 2:03, while Skylar Powell (220) lost in an 8-3 decision. But in fifth-place matches the Ponies
went undefeated. Dane Flammond (126) won with a pin in 2:16, Gunnar Aageson (145) won an 8-5 decision, Jared Laux earned a pin in 2:35, and John Chinadle (195) earned a pin in 1:22. “It felt good to get this good team start,” Kennelly said. “I got rid of some of my butterflies. I did wrestle some over the summer, so I came in feeling alright, but it is good to really start up again. I think we all just came out fired up and ready to go. That is pretty much all you can do in the first weekend, just come out and try your best.” All of the veteran Blue Ponies did what they were expected to do, but the new and up and comers also stepped up. Freshmen Munyan, Flammond, Parker Filius, Stokes, Powell and Laux all had very good HHS debuts. And sophomores like Kennelly, Pleninger, Pribyl and
Travis Adams all had outstanding showings in their encore appearances. “We have been taking that class of freshmen and sophomores around for a long time and they are deep," Coach Filius said. “We knew we had talent there, so that isn’t new to us. But our older kids did what we expected and I was pleasantly surprised with some of our young guys, but I expect all of our guys to compete.” After the two-day, season-opening tournament at the HHS gymnasium, the Ponies will get right back at it this weekend. Thursday in Butte, the Ponies will compete at the Butte Central Mixer. Friday and Saturday, the Ponies will remain in Butte for the always-tough Mining City Duals.