Ponies fired up to hit their own mat

In normal times, the Havre High wrestling team would have already held their annual Havre Invite and been a month into their season. As we all know by now, though, these aren't normal times.

So, two weeks into January, the Blue Ponies are finally going to make their home debut, when they host Lewistown for duals Saturday at the HHS gymnasium. Havre was set to host Hardin, as well, but the Bulldogs will not be making the trip.

Havre is two weeks into the delayed wrestling season, which started a month late per COVID-19 regulations. In that time, Havre has traveled to Miles City, and also taken down Glasgow and Glendive. Now though, the Ponies are excited to finally wrestle on their own mats.

"The kids are looking forward to it," Havre head coach Beau LaSalle said of this weekend, including the dual against the Eagles, who are led by undefeated senior phenom Cooper Birdwell, a three-time state champion headed to Oklahoma State. So, the dual is going to be a tough one, but one that LaSalle says his team is excited for.

"Lewistown has always had tough kids as far back as I can remember, but (coach) DeCock has done a great job developing that team and program into a trophy caliber team every year and this year is no different," LaSalle said. "He has, in my mind, the best kid in the state in Birdwell and tough kids throughout the lineup. I think we match up well in terms of being in some good matches on Saturday. The kids are looking forward to it."

There will be good matches for the Ponies in both duals.

Havre's varsity lineup includes undefeated and defending state champion Orion Thivierge at 170 pounds and unbeaten senior Mick Chagnon at 120. Sophomore Kale VanCampen (160), as well as Wyatt Hansen (152) have also gotten off to strong starts this season.

But, while Havre does have some veteran leadership, including Dominic Perkins at 126, Hunter Velk at 132, Riley Pleninger at 136, Kendall Pleninger at 145 and Randy Tommerup at 182, the lineup also relies on some young wrestlers, too. Jerry Kirkaldie (103), Carson Harris (113), Tristan Stygles (145), Mason Wilting (152), and heavyweights Zale Thomas and Andrew LaRoque are all newcomers to the varsity mat.

"This year's team is young with only two seniors and a pile of juniors and freshmen," LaSalle said. "For a such a young team we have had good leadership from our upperclassmen and the kids are working hard. Definitely going through some growing pains as with any young team, but they are getting better everyday and that's about all we can ask for."

Growing pains will be part of the deal this season for the Ponies, who finished third at state a year ago. But, they also will get to grow at home over the next couple of weeks, as Havre not only has a home dual Saturday, but also back-to-back dual meets next Friday and Saturday against Western A squads. Havre also finishes the regular season with three straight home dual meets, so the Ponies are going to keep getting better on their own mats.

And that process starts this Saturday when Havre takes on Lewistown with the action starting at 10 a.m. inside the HHS gymnasium.