Setting the stage: Flathead, Glacier wrestlers head to seeding tournament

A year ago, the Glacier wrestling team laid the groundwork for the school’s first state title at the Western AA seeding tournament, where 19 Wolfpack wrestlers qualified for state and five claimed divisional championships.

Flathead qualified 15 wrestlers at last year’s seeding tournament, including 171-pound senior Larry Francis, who became an individual state champion along with Glacier 160-pounder Shane St. Onge.

This year’s Western AA seeding tournament is today in Missoula, where the Glacier and Flathead squads will once again look to set the stage for successful state tournaments.

“The big key for divisionals is to qualify for state,” Flathead first-year coach Scot Davis said. “However you can do that is the biggest thing I look for.”

Glacier will enter 25 out of a possible 30 wrestlers in the seeding tournament while Flathead will enter 26. The top eight wrestlers in each weight class will advance to the state tournament Feb. 8-9 in Billings.

Unlike previous years, the Western AA seeding tournament will last one day instead of two. Glacier coach Mark Fischer said he favors the change.

“It’s pretty nice,” he said. “It seemed like a little bit of a waste of resources to do it in two days when a lot of teams didn’t have a lot of kids there. It’s one day kids have to think about competition instead of two.”

The 160-pound weight class should be particularly tough. Sentinel’s Michael Cloud and Flathead’s Jake Egley have both been ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll at times this season and Glacier’s Jackson Barber is also a contender. Egley placed third at 152 pounds at last year’s state tournament while Barber was fifth at 140.

“I think Jackson Barber will have a lot of tough matches,” Fischer said. “I think he’s perfectly capable of being in command of that weight class, but he’s going to have some competition.”

Fischer said he’s also looking forward to the matchup between Glacier’s Lucas Mantel and Sentinel’s Jordan Hegel at 135 pounds. Hegel and Mantel are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the coaches poll.

Flathead 112-pounder Gavyn Wilson will likely have his hands full against Sentinel’s Dylan Duffalo, who is ranked No. 1.

The Wolfpack struggled out of the gate this season, finishing a disappointing third at the Polson Invitational tournament and failing to qualify for the championship pool at the Mining City Duals in Butte. They finished eighth at the State AA Duals two weeks ago in Great Falls, but have won four straight duals since, finishing the regular season with wins over Missoula Hellgate, Missoula Big Sky, Helena Capital and Helena High. The Wolfpack finished with a 10-8 record in dual competition.

“I think our team is definitely starting to come around,” Fischer said. “The assistant coaches we have this year are amazing at getting these guys prepared for what needs to happen. I think the kids are responding to their work.

“Part of our rough start was because we were never able to put our team together. Every single week there was one thing or another. Now the kids realize this is where we’re at and we’ve got everybody going full throttle at this point. They feel like more of a family than they did at the beginning of the season.”

Glacier 145-pounder Alek Mitchell will miss the seeding tournament with a broken hand, but Fischer said the rest of his team is fairly healthy.

Davis said Flathead is enjoying good health at the moment and will have all hands on deck for the seeding tournament.

“We’re probably as healthy as we’ve been all season,” he said. “There’s nothing major that’s going to really make the difference in anybody’s performance.”

The Braves didn’t place at the State AA Duals but finished 2-2 at the tournament with consolation victories over Hellgate and Great Falls C.M. Russell. They concluded their regular season with dual losses to Missoula Sentinel and Helena High and a win over Helena Capital.

Davis said the Braves have already accomplished his two primary goals by finishing with a 12-11 dual record and increasing the size of the roster from 18 to 43 wrestlers.

“Coming into the season, I asked the powers that be what’s a good season from this team,” Davis said. “They said if you go .500 it’s a great season. We went a notch above, so we’re pretty happy with that.”