Ponies' quest ends in heartbreak

BUTTE — The problem with records and streaks is that unfortunately they all have to come to an end at one point or another. But with a fifth straight Class A state wrestling title hanging in the balance, the Havre Blue Ponies would have loved to have added one more year to the streak.

Friday and Saturday the Ponies attended the Class A state wrestling tournament at the Butte Civic Center in Butte. But ending almost a half decade of dominance, the Ponies finished in the No. 2 spot with 186 points. The Ponies were hoping for their fifth straight No. 1 finish, but Laurel dashed Havre's hopes with 198 points. Belgrade grabbed a No. 3 finish with 179.5 points.

Havre did however, make this their seventh straight year finishing in the top two.

"The kids still had a good weekend," Havre High head coach Scott Filius said. "I am proud of them and they all really put forth the effort. We had places where we could have picked up a few points, but you always have that when you have so many kids wrestling. But we will learn and get better. Our young guys are going to get better, this experience is going to be valuable and hopefully they will look to those upperclassman and see the work they put in during the off season and will want to get back to work."

HHS qualified 17 kids for state this year, but with the numbers came youth and inexperience, something the Ponies haven't really brought to state in the past.

All together, seven Ponies made their first trip to the state tournament. Nate Kennelly (105), Thomas Gruber (125), Jacob Williams (152) and Tyler Adams (285) made the trip this year as talented freshman. Adams was the only freshman to place, earning a sixth-place finish after going 3-3. Kennelly finished the weekend 1-3, while Gruber finished 0-2 and Williams finished 1-2.

Riley LaBuda (140) also finished his first state tournament going 0-2, while Grant Pattison (160) finished 2-2 and Dustin Odegard (215) finished 0-2.

Havre's more veteran wrestlers were led by Duell Stadel (119), Eli Hinebauch (145), Casey Schaub (171) and Kameron Pribyl (152).

Stadel earned his second straight No. 1 finish for the Ponies, while Hinebauch grabbed his first state title after finishing in second place the last two years. Schaub earned a No. 2 finish and Pribyl exited the tournament with a No. 3 finish after earning a tight 1-0 decision over Polson's Mike Devlin.

Gilbert Bara (112) also finished in fourth place for the Ponies, while Zack Smith (130) finished in fourth, Dillon Seely (135) finished in fifth and Jared Ruttkofsky (189) finished in fourth.

Bara found himself in a tight match. He trailed 2-0 early, but tied the match at 2-2 in the third round on a reversal. But Levi Gingerich of Corvallis earned an escape with just 12 seconds to go, handing Bara a fourth-place finish. Smith squeaked out a 2-1 decision to get into the third-place match, but ran into a dominating Marty Etchemendy from Miles city who outed Smith with a 12-1 major decision.

In Seely's fifth-place finish, he battled a tough Keaton Sterling from Belgrade. Seely trailed 2-1 after one round, but jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the second with a reversal and near fall. Seely gave up a late third round reversal, but there was no harm done as he grabbed the 7-1 win. And in Ruttkofsky's fourth-place finish, he went' down 0-2 in the first period and 0-4 in the second on two reversals. Ruttkofsky grabbed a point on an escape late in the second and had a late takedown in the third, but suffered the 7-3 loss.

Kolton Lodge (HWT) went 0-2 on the weekend and Josh Salapich went 2-2.

"As a team I feel we accomplished a lot," Zack Smith said. "Our freshman did pretty well and I believe everybody else contributed as well as they could. I think we all worked hard, we just didn't have all the seniors we had last year. Everybody wrestled hard and stayed focused. You can't over think it, you just have to win them where you can, and if you lose, get your head back in the game."

And while Adams would have loved to of been a part of a first place team, he was glad he was able to contribute and help push his team into the No. 2 spot.

"That definitely gives me a good feeling," Adams said. "I really wanted to beat that last kid (Cody Stone-Murphy of Laurel), but it didn't happen. But it still feels good that I was able to help out the team. At the beginning of the year I would have just been happy to make it to state, but as the year progressed coach Filius told me to set my goals higher. I was disappointed I didn't get higher, but I am grateful with where I finished."

Overall, the Ponies had two first place finishes, one second place finish, one third place finish, three fourth place finishes, one fifth and one sixth place finish. And while they trailed Corvallis, Belgrade and Laurel for much of the weekend, they put themselves in good position near the end.

After round one on Friday, the Blue Ponies sat in third place with 40 points, trailing Corvallis and Belgrade. And after the quarterfinals of the championship bracket and round one of the consolation bracket, the Ponies remained in third with 87 points. After Friday was in the books HHS still sat in third behind Corvallis and Belgrade with 98 points, trailing first place by 11 points.

On Saturday morning the Ponies looked to be on the verge of being out of the race.

After the semifinals and consolation quarterfinals Laurel had jumped out to a 20-point lead with 170 points. The Ponies were in third with 150. But Havre battled back and prior to the fifth and third-place matches the Ponies had moved into second place, trailing Laurel 177-173. Belgrade remained in second with 175.5.

But after the Ponies claimed their three No. 4 finishes, one No.3, one No. 5 and one No. 6 finish, they remained in striking distance. With Stadel, Hinebauch and Schuab in the championships, Havre could have still won. But it would have taken nothing short of a miracle, as all three Ponies would have to of had a No. 1 finish, and three out of the five wrestlers in the championships for Laurel would have had to lose. Only two out of the three lost for Laurel.

"You are always looking at things you can do to win it," Filius said. "But by in large the kids competed and gave us an opportunity. They (Laurel) just flat out wrestled. They are young and hungry, and they looked young and hungry and they wrestled well. Hats off to them.

"We have been hearing all sorts of things," Adams said "And nobody expected Havre to finish in the top three. But we all worked really hard and I can't think of one kid who didn't give his all. Everybody worked their butts off and gave it their best."

And HHS still had some great performances, like Pribyl, who battled in the premier weight class of the entire tournament. Pribyl was as close to winning a state title as one can get, losing in the semifinals by one point, and winning in the consolation finals by one point. And Smith, all he did was win four matches in a row after losing in the first round, each one coming by way of a one or two-point margin. Smith's contributions, along with young grapplers like Adams, Pattison and others gave Havre the chance it needed to keep its state title streak alive.

And though the Ponies weren't able to earn their fifth straight Class A state championship, there isn't time to dwell on the second place finish. The HHS grapplers wrestled well and made progress as such a young squad. But with another season just around the corner, the Ponies are already looking forward.

"We have a bunch of offseason before next season," Filius said. "We will get back in the weight room next week and get our junior high kids going as well as hopefully get our high school kids back on the mats for spring tournaments."