Ponies are kings of the Mining City, again

The Havre High wrestling team is used to having success in Butte, so when the Blue Ponies wound up winning a fifth straight team championship at the Mining City Duals this past weekend, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Yet, unlike many of Havre’s previous titles at the prestigious tournament, this one didn’t come easy. In fact, the Ponies had to rally from a 16-point deficit in the final dual to knock off Flathead in the championship 31-28 Saturday night.

The victory that turned things around for Havre, was that of sophomore Cameron Pleninger, who took the mat with his team in a dire situation. He was also faced with Bryce Shaffer, a state runner-up a season ago in Class AA. However, in the battle of second-place state finishers, Pleninger came out on top, notching a pin in 5:41 to get Havre back within 10.

Then, the Ponies made a run in the lower weights. Quinn Reno dropped a 3-1 decision to Dominic Battello at 120 pounds, but at 126 pounds, Marc Ramirez got a win over Hunter Reichert, which was followed by a Ryan Stewart pin for Havre at 132 pounds, which got HHS within one point at 28-27.

That meant that the dual and the team championship would be decided in the 138-pound weight class, in a contest between Lane Paulson and Flathead’s Jaden MacNeil. However, Paulson made it look easy against MacNeil, registering a 10-1 major decision and wrapping up the team crown in the process for the Ponies.

“If I wanted to keep us going, I had to give us some motivation,” Pleninger said to the Montana Standard after the dual. “It feels amazing. This is my second time here and second time winning. It’s just a ton of fun; it really gets your blood flowing.”

While Pleninger, Paulson, Ramirez and Stewart all notched clutch wins for Havre, the Ponies also got wins from Martin Wilkie (145) and Connor Harris (152). The big key were the four pins by Pleninger, Harris, Stewart and Ramirez, which helped the Ponies take the dual despite winning just six of the 13 matches. Havre also surrendered just one pin in the dual and lost just one major decision.

“Cameron’s, well, that was a pretty gutsy performance,” Havre head coach Scott Filius said to the Montana Standard. “Basically we had to get on top. We knew the kid cuts a lot of weight and would run out of gas late, so we had to keep it close and finish it at the end.”

The championship match went down to the wire for the Ponies, but it wasn’t their only competitive dual of the weekend. After cruising through the opening day with a 3-0 record following wins over Glacier (64-0), Conrad (72-6) and Frenchtown (49-15) Havre was the top seed from its pool and set up a dual Saturday morning against the host team, Butte High.

The Bulldogs have a strong wrestling tradition like the Ponies and they were determined to make things hard for Havre. Yet, when it was all said and done, Havre managed to beat the Bulldogs 35-31. HHS followed that up with a 42-27 win over Missoula Big Sky and a 54-15 trouncing of Great Falls High in the semifinals to reach the championship bout against the Braves.

The Ponies will be back on the road this Friday and Saturday, when they will travel to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, for the Tri-State Wrestling Tournament. Havre will look to defend its title at last year’s tournament against top teams from throughout the Northwest, including teams from Washington, Montana and Idaho.

MINING CITY

CHAMPIONSHIP

Havre 31, Flathead 28

145 – Martin Wilkie (H) dec. Tanner Russell, 3-1; 152 – Connor Harris (H) pin Kenyon Fretwell, 2:15; 160 – Garrett Rieke (F) pin Taylor Gopher, 0:38; 170 – Payton Hume (F) dec. Mason Dionne, 4-1; 182 – Colby Martin (F) via forfeit; 205 – Tucker Nadeau (F) dec. Tyler Schaub. 10-6; 285 – Alex Paul (F) maj. dec. Austin Ratliff, 15-4; 103 – Brenden Barnes (F) dec. Mick Chagnon, 8-1; 113 – Cameron Pleninger (H) pin Bryce Shaffer, 5:41; 120 – Dominic Battello (F) dec. Quin Reno, 3-1; 126 – Marc Ramirez (H) pin Hunter Reichert, 3:26; 132 – Ryan Stewart (H) pin A.J. Ekanger, 3:36; 138 – Lane Paulson (H) maj. dec. Jaden MacNeil, 10-1.