Blue Ponies out to defend Mining City title

After opening the 2014-15 wrestling season at home, the Havre Blue Ponies will take their show on the road this week to take part in two separate events in Butte.

The Ponies, who are the two-time defending state champions in Class A, finished second at the Havre Invitational a week ago, despite seven wrestlers posting top two finishes. Therefore, HHS is eager to get back on the mats this week and will do so today in the Butte Central Mixer.

The mixer is a one-day event where every wrestler from each team is promised two matches. In addition to Havre and host Butte Central, Corvallis, Anaconda, Columbia Falls, Hamilton and Stevensville will all be in attendance. The action will get underway tonight at 6.

"It's hard to tell how you are going to do because the schedule is mixed up and you don't really dual any one team and you don't know who you are going to be up against," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "But, Corvallis generally has some pretty scrappy kids. Anaconda last year had some tough kids, and we will also run into some good individuals."

The Havre lineup, which consists of three individual state champions from a season ago will get a boost this week with the return of sophomore Parker Filius, who did not wrestle at the Havre Invitational due to a lingering ankle injury. He will be back in the lineup this week at 145 pounds and will lead the way for HHS along with Jase Stokes at 170 pounds and Jace Billy at 205 pounds, who are each reigning state champions and first-place finishers a week ago.

The rest of the Havre lineup will also present a challenge to opponents from top to bottom, starting with Ryan Stewart at 103 pounds and Keegan Kennelly at 120 pounds, who also won his weight class at the Havre Invitational and placed second at state a season ago.

Grayson Brenna is coming off a second-place finish at the Havre Invite and will again wrestle at 132 pounds this week, followed by Dane Flammond at 138 pounds and Kody Pribyl, who finished second last weekend at 152 pounds. Gunner Aageson, one of the few seniors in the Havre lineup, will wrestle at 160 pounds this week and at 182 pounds will be Tyler Schaub. Both Aageson and Schaub notched third-place finishes at the Havre Invitational. Rounding out the lineup for the Ponies this week will be Travis Adams, who won the heavyweight class at the Havre Invitational and was also a second-place finisher at state last season.

After wrestling tonight in the Butte Central Mixer, the Ponies will continue their busy weekend by defending their title in the annual Mining City Duals, which features a number of top teams from Class AA and A such as Great Falls High, CMR, Butte High, Billings Skyview and Sidney among others.

The two-day tournament is essentially a tournament of duals, which begins Friday with the preliminary rounds. Havre will open the tournament against CMR at 10 a.m. Friday. Then, they will wrestle Billings Senior at 1 p.m., followed by Anaconda at 5 p.m.

"This weekend is probably the biggest growing experience of the year for our kids, just because you get the whole team sitting their cheering for you and the kids learn to compete for six minutes and that makes it really fun," Filius said.

If the Ponies do well Friday, which they have for years now, they will advance to the winner's bracket Saturday, which will feature 12 teams. At that point, each dual is basically a single elimination round in the tournament and the schools will wrestle off in duals until a champion is crowned.

"You want your kids to progress but you want to win it, too," Scott Filius said. "We were able to win the thing last year and we would like to win it again. You got some other teams that are just as deep and experienced, so it seems like with every dual at this tournament, you are upping the intensity and if the kids can match that, it makes it a lot of fun."

Havre will start its weekend tonight in the Butte Central Mixer at 6 p.m. Then the Ponies will compete in the Mining City Duals Friday and Saturday.