Local teams begin march towards MetraPark

Time is running out for the area’s wrestlers to make their mark.

There are just two weeks left before the seeding tournaments that will determine which wrestlers will compete at the state meet Feb. 13-14 in Billings.

For Flathead and Glacier, which start the season’s closing stretch with their crosstown dual tonight, that means a handful of dual meets are all that’s left to prepare for the postseason. Glacier will host the Western AA divisional seeding meet on Feb. 6-7.

“All of our technique is in, there’s no new things we need to add. My guys, their conditioning is looking great,” Flathead coach Rich Vasquez said.

“We’re going to go back to fundamentals, go back to basics. That’s what wins at the highest level.”

Each team did well at the last major tournament of the season, the Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic last weekend in Missoula. It will need to use tonight’s dual, along with the Class AA duals this weekend in Great Falls, to help drive those basic points of emphasis ahead of the state meet.

“I think it’s helped our kids see they’re making some good progress, that we can compete with other AA teams,” Glacier coach Ross Dankers said of Jug Beck.

“It kind of gives us that little boost and that little motivation at the end of the season.”

This weekend, most of all, is important.

Aside from the bragging rights either team can take at crosstown, the Class AA duals on Saturday will help determine seeding for the divisional tournament, which ultimately determines seeding for state and how well a team finishes at the MetraPark. The better each team does this weekend, the better chance they’ll have to take home hardware at state.

“Everybody’s in the same boat,” Vasquez said.

“We’ve pretty much all put in our technique that we’re going to have going into it. If you throw in new things now the kids won’t have enough time to practice it anyway.

“If you’re not focused on the fundamentals and the little things, you’re just wasting time.”

He said Flathead has spent its practice time this week honing in on the areas it needs to fix to be at its best.

“We’re spending a lot of time in the room working on those,” Vasquez said.

“I expect a few of those things to pay off in the next few weeks, and (tonight) as well.”

Glacier, which placed five wrestlers last weekend, is starting to round into form. Dankers said he hoped this weekend would help keep that form in tact.

“We want to try to put it together as a dual format this weekend,” Dankers said.

“We’re going to try to use some of that momentum to do that and then finish strong at the seeding meet.”

Even with the importance of the seeding and state meets will loom this weekend, the focus tonight is much simpler.

Win crosstown.

Because while time is running short for the state’s wrestlers to make their mark, it’s the last chance for many of them to claim the city’s bragging rights on the mat.

And that may be the most important thing the next few weeks has to offer.