Havre wrestling set for a busy weekend

After getting the new year started with a dual against Glasgow earlier this week, the Havre High wrestling teams are back to work tonight and this weekend. Tonight at Havre High Gymnasium, the Blue Ponies will compete in a dual against Hardin. The Ponies will then compete in the Cut Bank Invitational in their first tournament of the new year.

The Ponies are coming off dual wins against Glasgow Tuesday night. The HHS boys team won, 38-30, while the HHS girls team won 15-6. While the Ponies won to open the new year, HHS head coach Beau LaSalle knows the Ponies will have their hands full with Hardin tonight.

"Hardin's going to come up here and wrestle hard," LaSalle said. "They have a history of wrestling really hard and we're going to have our hands full with them. They got some guys that are ranked pretty high, and we're looking forward to those matchups and seeing how we fare."

The dual will be the last time the Ponies will wrestle at home in the regular season, so tonight will be their senior night. Before the duals, the Ponies will honor seniors Justin Awtrey and Kale Van Campen from the boys team and senior Aubree Erickson from the girls team.

After the dual, the Ponies will compete in their first tournament of the new year with the Cut Bank Invitational over the weekend. The Ponies only have a month left of competition before the postseason begins, so LaSalle hopes the Ponies use this tournament to get back on track after the holiday break.

"That's a fun tournament coming out of the break," LaSalle said. "We got a couple of duals before so we have to get back in that tournament mindset and just get the ball rolling through the end of the year to the postseason."

There will be many tough teams at this weekend's tournament. Over the weekend, the Ponies will compete against wrestlers from CMR, Lewistown and Heart Butte. Along with teams such as Hardin and Cut Bank, LaSalle expects some good competition this weekend.

"Overall, it's just a good individual tournament and hopefully we can put it together as a team and come out with a trophy," LaSalle said.

With the postseason soon approaching, LaSalle wants to see his wrestlers continue to improve this weekend. With a dual tonight and a tournament to cap off the week, LaSalle wants to see the Ponies wrestle hard and aggressively.

"(I want to see them) getting after it and being the aggressor and out-hustling guys," LaSalle said. "Just finishing matches, finishing periods on top and scoring at the end of periods and that's something that we need to address and get changed."

The HHS wrestling teams will start their duals against Hardin tonight at 6 p.m. at HHS Gymnasium. The Ponies will then begin the Cut Bank Invitational on Friday.