Great day for Glacier

GREAT FALLS - Remember the hard work, remember the early morning practices.

That's what Glacier wrestling coach Mark Fischer asked the members of the Wolfpack to do between the first and second rounds of the Class AA state wrestling tournament on Friday morning.

"‘It's time to reap the benefits right now,'" Fischer told the team.

"And that's what we did," Fischer said.

"In the past, we've struggled with the second round of the state tournament, so we just wanted to regroup and get them fired up. Boy, it worked.

"I don't think it could have been any better round than what we had. There were a lot of matches we were behind, but they found a way to get it done. They did it," he said.

After a roller coaster day, Bozeman leads in the team standings with 140 points, Glacier is second with 135 points, Billings Skyview is third with 122.5, Great Falls High is fourth at 100.5 and Flathead rounds out the top five with 97.5.

The Wolfpack put nine wrestlers through to the semifinals - and has 16 of the original 21 still alive.

Glacier's nine semifinalists are: Kaleb Mitchell (105), Alek Mitchell (112), Lucas Mantel (130), Brayden Roberts (145), Shane St. Onge (152), Riley Pisk (160), Boyce Ballard (189), Mack Sutherland (215) and Joel Horn (285).

Flathead has five semifinalists - Caleb Piasecki (119), Cody Tally (125), Steel Hahn (152), Larry Francis (160) and Connor Thomas (285) - and has 12 still alive in the tournament.

Glacier has never had more than eight placers at state before, Fischer said.

"I feel really good about where we are at. We are right there with (Bozeman)" Fischer said.

"I'm just really proud of the kids right now, but it's not over yet, so we've got to keep going," he added.

"Our coaches have been talking about peaking at the right time. We're wrestling really tough," said senior 189-pounder Boyce Ballard.

"We want that championship really badly," he said.

"We don't feel like we have a target on our back. We feel like we have to go get the people with the target," Ballard added.

"I'm so proud of the team right now," said Wolfpack junior 152-pounder Shane St. Onge.

"It's crazy how hard we've been working in the last couple of weeks. We've been fighting for how good we are doing right now," he said.

"I'm so excited. Last year, we went into the second round and we lost the intensity. This year, we're staying intense. Everyone wants to wrestle well for the team. You can see it everyone's eyes, how hard they are working to place," St. Onge said.

The trick for today is to keep the positive energy rolling, he said.

"We've got to keep everyone pumped up. We've got to keep the spark alive in everyone," he said.

As for the Braves, they did have a rough second round.

Ten Braves advanced from the first round, but of those only five made it through to the semis.

"We had a couple of letdowns. It happens in a tournament. You don't want it to, but there were definitely a couple there that hurt a little bit. You take a couple big losses where you think you are going to take wins," said Flathead coach Matt Owen.

"We didn't have the momentum going with us for awhile," he said.

"But the kids bounced back and wrestled well in this last round. I thought we at least finished on a high note. That's a positive going into tomorrow," Owen said.

Still, the Braves are just 25 points behind Billings Skyview.

"We're still within shooting distance of getting a trophy. If we have a great semifinals rounds - and I think we have five matches we can win in there - and these guys do what they did this afternoon in the wrestle backs, we are hopefully going to be bringing home a trophy," Owen said.

"Hopefully, we keep doing what we did in this last round, we keep plugging away. We need to bring that momentum into (today)."