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Havre wrestling grew through the year to finish strong at state

In a year that saw several Havre High School teams take home state trophies, the HHS wrestling team should not be forgotten. In the wrestling state tournament's return to the Metra in Billings, the Blue Ponies ended the season finishing second at state. The Ponies were a young team last season, so head coach Beau LaSalle believes bringing a state trophy back to the Hi-Line was an impressive end for the season.

"We had a pretty good season overall. We had a lot of kids that were very consistent throughout the year and placed in a lot of tournaments for us," LaSalle said. "The team grew. Overall, we were a pretty young team so we gained some experience and maturity throughout the year."

While the Ponies took second at the tournament, there was adversity during that weekend. The Ponies started the tournament strong on Friday to put themselves in position to compete for the top spot. But they suffered some losses on Saturday morning to drop them out of contention for the title. Thankfully, they responded later that afternoon to end the tournament strong and secure second place.

"It was a good accomplishment for our kids and our staff," LaSalle said about taking second at state. "I don't think a lot of teams thought we were that good of a team but as a staff and as a team, we thought we were going to be there all year long."

The Ponies were able to take second at state because so many wrestlers placed at state to earn all-state honors. In his final season as a Pony, Orion Thivierge won another state title as he wrestled in the 170-pound weight class. At 152 pounds, senior Riley Pleninger won his last two matches of the weekend to finish third in his bracket.

Tristian Stygles finished fourth wrestling at 138 pounds and Carson Harris took fifth wrestling at 120 pounds. Reinhardt Bold ended the season with a fifth-place finish in the 145-pound weight bracket.

Senior Kendall Pleninger finished his career with a fifth-place finish in the 160-pound weight class. Fellow senior Randy Tommerup finished fifth as he wrestled at 205 pounds at the state tournament.

Fellow Ponies that earned all-state honors after placing at state include Kale VanCampen and Pierce Caplette. VanCampen finished fifth wrestling at 182 pounds while Caplette took sixth in the 205-pound weight class. All these wrestlers that placed at state had wrestled well throughout the season, so LaSalle was not surprised that the Ponies had about as many wrestlers place as any team in the tournament.

"Those guys that placed at the state tournament are the guys that expected to do it all year long and they were the leaders all year long," LaSalle said. "They were the guys that were consistent all year long placing at tournaments throughout the year."

Of course, all these wrestlers would not have reached that success without their hard work. The Ponies would get up early to lift weights at 6 a.m. before starting their morning practices at 8 a.m. But the Ponies did not just have to show up for those practices, they had to get something out of them.

"That's one of the big things that we try to push for. Not going through the motions and not just trying to survive through practice, but to get something out of it and I think each day across the board, the whole team did that," LaSalle said. "We had good senior leadership and we had some young kids really step up and fill some key roles for us."

While the Ponies will lose wrestlers such as Thivierge, Tommerup and both Pleningers, they will return several wrestlers who placed at state last season. VanCampen will be the lone senior next season, so Harris, Stygles, Bold and Caplette will all be back for another couple of seasons. If they can keep up their hard work like they did last year, LaSalle believes the Ponies should remain in contention next year.

"The future looks good if they keep improving like they have and keep doing what they've been doing," LaSalle said. "We were happy with the way they performed (last season). It was good seeing them improve throughout the summer and then into fall and now into next season."

 

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