Malta invites caps wrestling's regular season

For the Havre High wrestling team, the end of the regular season is almost here. In fact, it comes this Saturday at the Malta Invitational.

Once again, the Blue Ponies have put together a dominant season. They have won every tournament but one and next week, they will head to Glendive for the Eastern A Divisional meet. But before that, they will have one last chance at a tune-up.

“You are always looking to get better,” HHS head coach Scott Filius said. “Right now, we have three weeks left and we are pointing towards individual kids and seeing what we can get cleaned up. We look at matches we may have lost from earlier in the year, matches where we may be able to turn around or separate one of the two.”

While the Malta invite won’t necessarily offer any difficult team competition for Havre, the meet will feature both Malta and Glasgow. The Scotties were ranked sixth in a recent Class B-C poll and Malta, the host team was ranked eighth.

“There will be some great individuals,” Filius said. “You will get Choteau, Shepherd, you get the Hi-Line, Glasgow, we haven’t seen them yet this year. You get some really good individuals, but realistically there probably isn’t a solid team out there.”

With divisionals just a week away, it will be the last chance for some individuals to earn a spot on the divisional roster, while some other veterans, such as Dane Flammond could get the week off.

“My guess would be Dane Flammond needs a week,” Filius said. “And some other kids like him. I just have seen what I need to see and they could use a week. It will be a majority of the guys, but some guys just need a week a off.”

Yet Filius did say that both Parker Filius and Jase Stokes would be in action at their custom spots in the 145 and 205-pound weight class.

“Those guys are the leaders of the team,” coach Filius said. “So I am making them go.”

The rest of team including junior varsity wrestlers will be in attendance, but some of them will include Qiunn Reno and Cameron Pleninger at 103, Marc Ramirez at 113 pounds, Ryan Stewart at 113 pounds, Lane Paulson at 120 pounds, Martin Wilkie at 126 pounds, Connor Harris at 132 and Mason Dionne at 152.

Tyler Schaub will also be in action at 182 pounds and at heavyweight will be Jared Sienkowski. Taylor Gopher will wrestle at 160.

The Ponies, along with Chinook and Harlem will compete in the Malta Invitational this Saturday, followed by the Eastern A Divisional in Glendive next Saturday.