AA wrestling: Wolfpack state champs

BILLINGS - It turned out to be everything the coaches, the wrestlers and the Glacier Wolfpack wrestling community dreamed about.

The Wolfpack claimed Glacier High School's first state wrestling championship on Saturday night, posting 253 team points at the All Class Tournament at Billings' MetraPark. Great Falls High was second at 238 and Billings Skyview was third with 224.

The Wolfpack had built a 20-point lead over Great Falls going into the finals, but no one on the Glacier team was counting their chickens.

"(The Bison) had four dynamite kids in the finals," said Glacier coach Mark Fischer.

The finals started at the 160-pound weight class.

Glacier senior co-captain Shane St. Onge won a 9-5 decision over Billings Skyview's Sam Shelton - and the smiles started.

"It felt so good to win. All these years finally came together," St. Onge said.

"Since I was 6 years old, I've dreamed of being a state champion. It feels so good for it to finally happen.

"All those mornings I showed up early to the weight room to wrestle, to work out ... all the sacrifices I've had to make, everything I've had to go through. I tried everything I could," he added.

"It felt so good. I was so overwhelmed. Our coaches told us not to focus on team points, to be selfish. But I wanted to do it for my school. I wasn't wrestling for myself. I was wrestling for my school, for my family and for all those guys I met every morning," he said.

"When Shane won his match, Great Falls had to pin all four kids in the finals. I felt pretty confident right there," Fischer said.

"What an incredible kid. What an incredible way to finish his career. He almost had both his junior and senior years taken away from him (due to injuries). And he gets the victory to secure the win for us," he said.

"From there we had so much more confidence," agreed 189-pounder Lane Armstrong.

"We knew then we had it," agreed heavyweight Mack Sutherland.

"I jumped up and down screaming. I was so happy for Shane," he added.

But they didn't really know for certain until after the 105-pound weight class, Fischer said.

When Butte's Bryan Armstrong claimed a 2-0 decision over Great Falls' 105-pounder, it was over.

"I looked at (assistant coach Mark) Armstrong. He started crying. So much heart and soul goes into this," Fischer said.

He himself had to go have a moment to himself behind the bleachers.

"I can't explain it. I look at these coaches who had dedicated every single morning this year. I'm so proud of those coaches. I'm so proud of the kids. They've come so far this year. They deserve every bit of credit they get," he said.

The Wolfpack members haven't felt like they've gotten a ton of respect this season. They weren't ranked particularly high for much of the campaign - and according to Fischer and to two of the Wolfpack senior runners-up, that rankled a bit.

Glacier was in fact ranked No. 2 in the poll released just a couple of days before the tournament began.

According to Lane Armstrong, Fischer told the team that when he got on the bus heading out of Kalispell on Wednesday.

"We didn't get a lot of respect in the polls. We showed them we deserved a little bit more than that," Armstrong said.

"They hadn't given a lot of our kids a lot of credit, so we fought through it," agreed Sutherland.

"We had our hopes high and we wanted to win." he said.

"That fueled them up. They wanted to come here and show everyone they were better than that," Fischer smiled.

The victory culminates a lot of hard work - Glacier put in daily two-a-day practices right up until last week.

"That's a lot of hours in. We all deserve this. Our JVs helped out a lot," Sutherland said.

Note: It was a historic night for the All Class Tournament. Ben Stroh of Chinook claimed his fourth title at 189 pounds, Luke Zeiger of Glasgow captured his fourth at 140, Luke Schlosser of Conrad won his fourth at 119 and Cole Mendenhall of Great Falls High picked up his fourth at 140.