STATE WRESTLING: Flathead finishes Day 1 with a flurry
BILLINGS — It’s going to take an awful lot to keep the Flathead Braves down.
Wearing warmups emblazoned with the last name “Hume” in a not-so-subtle nod to a disqualified teammate and a week filled with off the mat drama, Flathead rebounded from a rocky second session to dominate the day’s late matches and advance 11 grapplers to today’s championship rounds.
Payton Hume, the Flathead sophomore whose disqualification from the tournament was upheld by a Flathead District Court judge earlier this week, was in attendance on Friday, wearing the same shirt — with his own last name on the back — as the rest of his teammates.
“We decided to come together as a team, and we had a meeting and said ‘if one guy goes down it hurts us all’ but we’re going to come together and perform at our best for Payton,” Flathead sophomore Trae Vasquez said of the shirts.
“(The shirts) came from our seniors, we really just wanted to honor Payton and all of the hard work he did for us, for the team, this season.”
While Hume cheered from the stands, his Flathead brethren had a rough second round. Of the 10 Braves wrestlers who posted wins in the first round, only three advanced to the semis. In the consolation bracket, however, six of those grapplers kept their tournaments alive with wins.
“You have some ups and downs, it’s just (this) tournament, the way it rolls,” Flathead coach Rich Vasquez said. “You’ve just got to keep your head, stay positive and just keep driving, and I though the boys did a good job of that. They all came back well, I’m proud of them.”
After one day of action, Flathead sits in fifth place as a team, but third through seventh places are separated by only eight points. Billings Senior is out ahead of the field with 106 points and Missoula Sentinel is second with 98.5. Flathead has 74 points, but more wrestlers remaining than any of the five teams in the third-seventh logjam.
The Braves’ three semifinalists include a pair of top seeds. Hunter Rush, at 103 pounds, pinned each of his opponents Friday to advance. At 120 pounds, Trae Vasquez, the undefeated defending 113 pound champ, also finished each of his matches by pin.
Vasquez is trying to make a bit of history today by winning his second straight state championship, something no Braves wrestler has done since 2010. He remains unfazed by the moment.
“I’m thinking about trusting in myself and being confident,” he said. “I know who I am and I know the wrestler I am. It’s all good thoughts, all positive.”
Tucker Nadeau, at 160 pounds, joins his teammates in the semis and will get a chance to avenge an upset loss last week. The sophomore fell in the divisionals to Missoula Sentinel’s Chance Stack, who will be his semifinal opponent.
“Tucker had a tough call in the divisional to lose to this kid but he’s beat him several times this year,” coach Vasquez said. “I think we’ve got a shot to get all three (to win a title).”
Flathead’s Cody Devall (113), Kenyon Fretwell (132), Anthony Wright (170), Matt Gash-Gilder (170), Logan Wilson (182), Hunter Wellcome (182), Payton Boyce (205) and Michael Lee (285) are all consolation semifinalists. Wilson and Wellcome will actually face each other early today.
“We need to finish,” Rich Vasquez said. The (consolation) guys are in the blood rounds, win and you’re in, lose and you’re out. There’s a lot of emotion going there. There is no tomorrow.”
Glacier will have two wrestlers in action today. Donavon Macura (160) and Eli Horn (285) are each in the consolation semifinals.
Wrestling begins at 9:30 a.m. today at Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark.
State championship matches are tentatively set for 3:15 p.m.