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Pony matmen head to the Mining City Duals

Fresh off of a team win at the season opening Havre Invitational, the Havre High Blue Pony wrestling team looks to keep rolling as they enter another long and tough weekend.

The Central A Ponies beat out top teams like Great Falls High and CMR at home last weekend, and will face another tough field of programs Friday and Saturday at the Mining City Duals in Butte. This evening, the Ponies will also take part at the Butte Mixer at Butte Central, facing individuals from Corvallis, Hamilton, Stevensville, Livingston, Butte Central and Anaconda.

At the mixer this evening, the Ponies are looking to grab solid matches where they can, as well as get a solid warm up heading into Friday and Saturday’s duals. Corvallis has some decent wrestlers this year, while Anaconda returns Bryan Armstrong, a state champion at 130 pounds last year. Hamilton, Livingston, and Butte Central are middle-of-the-road programs, while Stevensville is building from the ground up this season.

“We will get some quality matches,” Havre High head coach Scott Filius said. “There are some real quality kids there and we will try to matchup and get matches where we can.”

The real tough task starts Friday and will push the Ponies through Saturday at the duals.

Last year, the Ponies finished as runner-up to Sidney in the Mining City finale, losing in the championship dual 42-40. This year the Ponies will look to get back into the title dual after facing their pool of Bozeman, Capital and Polson Friday. Capital is solid this year, while Polson, normally a powerhouse program, will struggle to compete. The biggest test will come from Bozeman, a team the Ponies defeated twice last year in the duals. Havre defeated Bozeman 39-37, then 33-32 in the semifinal dual.

Bozeman will most likely put a lineup on the mat that recently defeated Great Falls High in a dual. The Ponies should run into Bjorn Schroeder (98), Christian Candelaria (106), Kale Evanson (113), Devin Harris (120), Ryan Bishop (126), Seth James (132), Silas Hopkins (138), Ben Manion (145), Brad Gasset (152), Jacob Luckey (160), Michael Bertelsen (170), Douglas Bertelsen (182), Cody Wiers (195), Keavon Buckley (220), and Hunter Hart (285).

“Bozeman returns a bunch of kids this year and they have high expectations and a good coach,” Filius said. “They will be solid this year. But my expectation for us is to wrestle very well, and I would hope the kids have the same expectation.”

But with a solid lineup as well, the Ponies should be able to compete very well all weekend long.

Making the trip and wrestling for HHS will be Tate Munyon (98), Keegan Kennelly (106), Logan Pleninger (113), Grayson Brenna (120), Dylan Stewart (126), Thomas Gruber (132), Parker Filius (138), Kody Pribyl (145), Gunnar Aageson (145), Jase Stokes (152), Jayson Kohler (160), Jordan Schroeder (160), Jake Williams (170), Dustin Odegard (182), Jace Billy (195), Tyler Adams (220) and Travis Adams (285).

This dual meet is different from a lot of tournaments the Ponies travel to during the season. The amount of matches a certain grappler will get depends on how well the team does as a whole. If the team finds ample success this weekend, the HHS wrestlers will get plenty of opportunities to wrestle, and plenty of opportunities to continue to get better. But after a great start to the season last weekend, the Ponies also want more than anything to win.

And over the last decade, the Ponies have been one of the most successful teams at the Mining City Duals. Despite the field featuring all of Class AA, as well as most of the best Class A powers, Havre has finished first or second at the Mining City tourney seven times in the last 10 years, and this year could be no different.

“We have had a great week of practice and the kids have wrestled hard,” Filius said. “I hate to think we go into any weekend without the hopes of winning, and that is what our goal is this weekend. We have the kids to do it and we have put in a lot of work.”

Tonight Havre will compete at the Butte Mixer, but Friday and Saturday the Ponies will face a very tough group of programs at the Mining City Duals in Butte.

 

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