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For the Havre High wrestling team, few tournaments are more exciting than the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic. Few are also more challenging.
The meet, hosted annually in Missoula, has long been known as the most competitive in Montana and, outside of the state tournaments, the most prestigious. The Blue Ponies, who won the team title in 2015 and 2016, finished third last season. They will go for their third title in four years, starting Friday in Missoula. The finals will be held Saturday afternoon.
"The Rocky is always fun, it's always a great tournament," HHS head coach Scott Filius said. "It's probably the best high school tournament in the state of Montana, so it's always a fun one to go to."
After winning a 16th straight team title at the Cut Bank Invitational last weekend, the Ponies will head into the Jug Beck with a fair amount of momentum. However, the team still isn't quite at 100 percent. Jazz Schroeder, who will wrestle at 182 pounds, is still finding his way back from an injury, and Quinn Reno, an individual state champion a season ago, will miss the tournament due to being sick.
While Havre produced two individual champions at last season's Rocky Mountain Classic, one was Parker Filius, who is now wrestling for Purdue University. The other is Martin Wilkie, a two-time state champion who will be looking to become a two-time champion at the Rocky Mountain. He won last year in the 132-pound weight class and this time around, he will go for the title at 138 pounds.
If Reno was going to be in action, Havre would have a runner-up returning, as he earned a second-place finish at the Rocky Mountain in 2017. But others who placed there a season ago will also be in attendance. Ryan Stewart, who was fourth at 113 pounds, will wrestle this weekend at 120. Lane Paulson will also be in action at 132 pounds and Ramirez will be in there at 126 pounds for Reno.
"If Quinn had been healthy, we would have had them lace it up and wrestle off," Filius said. "120 pounds has just been too much weight for him to keep off. And it won't matter the rest of the way anyways, only this week."
After Wilkie at 132, Havre will have Connor Harris at 145 and Mason Dionne at 160. At 170 pounds, the lineup will feature Schroeder, followed by Tyler Schaub at 205 pounds and Austin Ratliff in the heavyweight division. Harris was eighth in the tournament a season ago and Paulson was sixth.
In the light weights, Havre also has some very capable wrestlers such as Mitch Chagnon, who has catapulted himself near the top of the Class A wrestling rankings at 103 pounds, trailing only Eli Warner of Frenchtown in the polls. He was ranked second in the past poll. Logan Pleninger is also highly ranked at 113 pounds, as is Schaub, ranking first at 205 pounds. Wilkie has also been top-ranked all season long, but in the last ranking, he was put in with the 145-pounders, and in Cut Bank, he wrestled at 138.
Still, Havre has enough depth to make a push this weekend, although it will be difficult to overcome Kalispell, which won the Tri-State Wrestling Tournament in Coeur d'alene, Idaho, last month. The Ponies will also be competing with a majority of Class AA teams, as well some high schools from Washington, Idaho and Wyoming. Frenchtown, another top team in Class A will also be in attendance. However, Sidney, which beat Havre in a recent dual will not be.
Regardless of who is all there, Filius said he believes his team has a chance to be in the mix, although he wasn't sure what the ceiling is.
"I think we will be in the hunt, I don't know if we have enough to chew all the way through it I can't say unequivocally we are going to win it," Filius said, "but I think we will certainly put some points on the board."
The Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic will be held at Sentinel High School in Missoula and starts today. It will be finished Saturday.
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