Flathead hopes to rock at Rocky

Braves' Ham (135), Stacy (145) seeded No. 1 for wrestling tournament

Another week, another tournament, another obstacle for the Flathead wrestling team.

This time it's the annual Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic.

Flathead has won the last two and three of the last four Rocky Mountain Classics.

The Braves have won every tournament they've entered this year - including the Mining City Duals, the Tri-State Tournament in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the Pat Weede Memorial Duals in Gillette, Wyo.

But Flathead coach Jeff Thompson isn't counting Flathead's chickens just yet.

"This is always a big week for us. We push them pretty hard. We're kind of at the top of our cycle for work, then we start tapering down," Thompson said.

"This is the most intense week of our season. We can't push them enough - and these guys can't get enough," he said.

Twenty-eight teams from Montana, Idaho and Washington will battle it out today and Saturday at Missoula Sentinel High School.

Thompson ranks the Rocky ahead of the state tournament in terms of difficulty.

"They kind of hand pick these teams," he said.

Othr local teams making the trip to Missoula are Columbia Falls, Glacier High, Polson, Ronan, Libby and Whitefish.

Today's wrestling begins at 11:30 a.m. The championship finals will be 4-6 p.m. on Saturday.

"There are a lot of tough guys who are coming to Rocky. We're going to have to battle to win this. It's not like they're going to hand it to us on a platter when we walk in the door," Thompson said.

Two Flathead wrestlers are seeded No. 1 in their individual weight classes and three others are seeded No. 2.

Brian Ham (135) and Bryce Stacy (145) are seeded first while Shawn Lau (112), Tanner Beaman (130) and Tyler Thomas (Hwt) are all seeded second.

2 Michael Hader, Columbia Falls, No. 5 Tyler Wells, Flathead, (160) No. 5 David Lau, Flathead, No. 6 Brock Picard, Polson, (171) No. 3 Luke Fischer, Flathead, (189) No. 4 Kelly Houle, Columbia Falls, No. 6 Justin Graham, Libby, (215) No. 2 Jake Scheel, Whitefish, No. 5 Justin Waverek, Flathead, and (Hwt) No. 5 Brandin Mills, Libby.

The Braves will need to take every opportunity for bonus points - pins, technical falls, etc., Thompson said.

He expects some of the top competition to come from Havre, Great Falls High, Coeur d'Alene High and University High.

There will be a few new additions to Flathead's lineup this week - Gaiser won a wrestle-off at 119 pounds, Shawn Lau returns at 112, freshman Steel Hahn will be at 105 pounds and Ryan Thiel will step in at 140 pounds.

Thiel is usually at 145, but senior T.C. Decker injured his shoulder during the Bozeman tournament.

Roll call

A list of the 28 teams competing at the 31st annual Rocky Mountain Classic wrestling tournament with their abbreviations in parentheses:

Anaconda (Ana), Missoula Big Sky (BS), Bonners Ferry, Idaho (BF), Bozeman (Boz), Butte (But), Great Falls C.M. Russell (CMR), Central Valley, Wash. (CV), Clarkston, Wash. (Clk), Columbia Falls (CF), Corvallis (Cor), Coeur d'Alene High (CdA), Ferris High, Spokane, Wash. (Fer), Kalispell Flathead (Flat), Frenchtown (Ftn), Great Falls High (GFH), Kalispell Glacier (Gla), Hamilton (Ham), Havre (Hav), Missoula Hellgate (Hgt), Libby (Lib), Loyola Sacred Heart (Loy), Mead High, Spokane, Wash. (Mead), Polson (Pol), Ronan (Ron), Missoula Sentinel (Sent), Superior (Sup), University High, Spokane, Wash. (UHi), Whitefish (Wf).

Individual seeding

(The top six seeded wrestlers in each weight class, barring scratches Friday morning)

98 lbs

1, Tyler Stedman, Ftn; 2, Duel Stadel, Hav; 3, Dylan Mendenhall, GFH; 4, Zach Reimnitz, Flat; 5, Jared Maynes, CV; 6, Andrew Palmer, CdA.

105 lbs

1, Chris Recio, Hav; 2, Mike Budeski, CMR; 3, Zach Robinson, Ron; 4, Steel Hahn, Flat; 5, Kenny Staub, CdA; 6, Clay Armstrong, Ftn.

112 lbs

1, Braden Mowry, CdA; 2, Shawn Lau, Flat; 3, Chad Hansen, Ftn; 4, Tanner Teeples, CV; 5, Cameron Neiss, Ron; 6, Culley Buckley, Boz.

119 lbs

1, Jake Love, Sent; 2, Travis Lang, Boz; 3, Ryan Shelstad, Hav; 4, Tyson Noyes, Ron; 5, Anthony Rivera, UHi; 6, Jeremiah Gaiser, Flat.

125 lbs

1, Brian Owen, UHi; 2, Phillip Smith, Mead; 3, Dan Jenkins, Flat; 4, David Demo, Boz; 5, Josh Rettinghouse, Fer; 6, Kelly Olds, CMR.

130 lbs

1, Myles Mazurkiewicz, Hav; 2, Tanner Beaman, Flat; 3, Trenton Starkey, CMR; 4, Mickey Cheff, Ron; 5, Trae Fouty, Pol; 6, Taylor Allen, Cor.

135 lbs

1, Brian Ham, Flat; 2, Landon DellaSilva, Cor; 3, Mitch Rohrback, CMR; 4, Matt Starr, Wf; 5, Tyler Simmet, CV; 6, Kent Pattison, Hav.

140 lbs

1, Zach Mendenhall, GFH; 2, Cody Kolodejchuk, CF; 3, Ryan Thiel, Flat; 4, Ryan Zumwalt, UHi; 5, Daniel Hamilton, Sent; 6, Dayne Swisher, BF.

145 lbs

1, Bryce Stacey, Flat; 2, Nash Hallfrisch, CMR; 3, Alex Martin, Ham; 4, Kaleb Prestegaard, Wf; 5, Andy Jessop, Cor; 6, Aaron Olson, Hav.

152 lbs

1, Don Widdicombe, BS; 2, Michael Hader, CF; 3, Marcus Lussy, Ana; 4, Josh Renfro, CV; 5, Tyler Wells, Flat; 6, Ethan Hinebauch, Hav.

160 lbs

1, Drew Comito, Mead; 2, Dan Jordan, UHi; 3, Maxx Galland, GFH; 4, Jesse Nielsen, CdA; 5, David Lau, Flat; 6, Brock Picard, Pol.

171 lbs

1, Cody Way, Ftn; 2, Brock Anderson, Ham; 3, Luke Fischer, Flat; 4, Zach Wichman, GFH; 5, Andre Rivera, Fer; 6, D.J. Renz, But.

189 lbs

1, Ty Vinson, GFH; 2, Logan Bowman; 3, Brady Anderson, Ham; 4, Kelly Houle, CF; 5, Mike Gireth, Clk; 6, Justin Graham, Lib.

215 lbs

1, Jacob Neumann, CV; 2, Jake Scheel, Wf; 3, Jake Trotter, Mead; 4, Dennis Jessop, Cor; 5, Justin Waverek, Flat; 6, Tyler Carter, GFH.

Heavywight

1, Tyler Cochran, CV; 2, Tyler Thomas, Flat; 3, Grant Turner, CdA; 4, Andrew Voorhees, CMR; 5, Brandin Mills, Lib; 6, Mitch Schnittgen, Hav.