Seeding tourney next for Braves, Wolfpack

There's no going back now.

The Flathead Braves and Glacier Wolfpack wrestling teams head to Helena today for the Western AA seeding tournament.

The top eight wrestlers in each weight class advance to the Class AA state tournament Feb. 11-12 in Great Falls.

Both Flathead and Glacier are expected to be among the top teams at this tournament.

Weigh-ins are at 2 p.m. with the first matches scheduled for 4 p.m.

Five-time defending state champion Flathead is taking 24 wrestlers, while Glacier is taking 26.

Flathead qualified 22, including eight divisional champions, last year.

"If we got anything close to 20, I think we would be in great shape. I think we'd set ourselves up well for state," said Flathead coach Matt Owen.

Four of those eight divisional champs are back this year - Caleb Piasecki (119), Cody Tally (125), Jeremiah Gaiser (145) and Connor Thomas (285).

But the Braves have been hit hard with injury and illness this winter.

"We even had some kids miss practices this week," Owen said.

But on the upside, everybody is healthy now - and Travis Ozegovich (215) is even able to return. Ozegovich injured his knee during the crosstown dual last month at Glacier, but got doctor's clearance on Monday to compete this weekend.

"I definitely would have liked to have had him back sooner, but he's been having some good practices so far," Owen said.

"We're as healthy as we are going to be. Everybody is doing good. We finally have a full team again. It's exciting.

"I thought we had a great week of parctice. The kids seem really excited to get to the postseason and I think we're doing everything we need to do to get ourselves prepare. I think we're ready to go."

So is the Wolfpack.

It wasn't that many weeks ago that Glacier returned disappointed after a third place finish at the Class AA duals in Butte.

"Maybe that was a good thing. Best thing to happen to us," said Wolfpack coach Mark Fischer.

"I feel really good. I am so proud of the kids right now, how they've responded. They've really rebounded in a positive way.

"I think we're ready to go. The kids are jacked. They feel better then they have all seaon. They're ready to peak," Fischer said.

"All of them are ready. We have no excuses going into this divisional tournament. We are all healthy, we are all 100 percent and we are going to get after it," he added.

"I think it's going to be a total team effort. I have faith in all of those kids and I'm excited to see every single one of them go out there."

Glacier qualified a school record 23 for last year's state tournament.

"That's a good number to shoot for, I think. That would be a good goal for our team," Fischer said.

Kaleb Mitchell was a divisional champion at 98 pounds for Glacier last year.