STATE WRESTLING: Vasquez, Braves bring home state hardware in Class AA

BILLINGS — There’s only one great remedy for a long, arduous week.

And that’s to go out, cut loose and have a whole lot of fun on the weekend.

Flathead turned one of the most tumultuous five-day stretches imaginable into a full-blown party on Saturday night at MetraPark, where the Braves collected nine podium finishes and won their first team trophy in six years by finishing in third place in Class AA as the All-Class wrestling tournament came to an end.

The week went, literally, from tears on Tuesday to smiles on Saturday. Sophomore Payton Hume’s courtroom defeat upholding a ban from the state tournament for a violation of weigh-in rules brought out the worst kinds of emotions to start the week, and then Saturday’s proceedings brought out the best, ending with Trae Vasquez leaping into his proud father’s arms for the second straight year.

Vasquez put an exclamation point on a 41-0 season with a blistering 42-second pin in the championship match at 120 pounds to win his second state title in as many years. The sophomore is the first Flathead wrestler to win back-to-back state championships since Shawn Lau did it from 2009-10.

“This one was a little bit (different),” Vasquez said. “This one was more emotional just because of all the stuff that’s been leading up to state, all the drama.

“We wanted to go out with a bang for (Hume). This one’s for Payton.”

Vasquez won the quick-pin award in Class AA with four pins in four matches, but Saturday’s final was the quickest of the bunch. Vasquez exploded off the opening whistle with a quick takedown and never relinquished his position, putting down Billings Skyview’s Austin Ketchem while hardly breaking a sweat.

“My dad (Flathead coach Rich Vasquez) gave me a little pep talk,” Vasquez said. “Every time before I wrestle he tells me ‘go do your thing and light them up’ so that’s what I go do.”

“This one is always special,” Rich Vasquez said of his son’s performance at the state tournament. “Shoot, I wrestled in this same building back in the day. It was pretty neat. It’s so special to watch him go out and do what he does.”

Coach Vasquez was also effusive in his praise for his son, not just the wrestler.

“Everything he does he wants to be the best,” he said. “Grades, he’s a 4.0 (GPA) kid. At home, he’s a great brother and a great sister and a great son. It’s just special to have a kid like that.”

It was a pretty big day for dad, too, who was at the center of the controversy surrounding Hume and had to admit to a careless clerical mistake on the witness stand on Tuesday. Flathead’s third place finish gives Vasquez his first state trophy as a coach.

“When I first came in here three years ago, we talked to the boys about wrestling as the tip of the spear,” Rich Vasquez said, referencing the Braves’ spear logo. “Let’s be the leaders, let’s be the guys that bring home some hardware for the athletic program, and these boys have really bought in.”

Trae’s state championship was the biggest highlight for the Braves, but it was most certainly a team performance. Flathead wrestlers started the day by going 8-3 in their opening matches, guaranteeing the nine medalists and vaulting Flathead up the leaderboard.

The Braves also had one other state finalist, as Hunter Rush at 103 pounds pinned Garreth Erhardt of Billings Senior in the semifinals, only to drop a tight 6-0 decision to Bozeman’s Chance McLane in the championship match.

“Unbelievable tournament for (Rush),” Rich Vasquez said. “Coming into the year we weren’t really sure what we were going to get but now he’s hungry to come back and finish what he started and get a state championship.”

Rush, a junior, did not place in the state tournament last year, and Vasquez sees his improvement as a tone-setter for his budding program.

“Seeing Hunter make the finals, I think, is even bigger because now the rest of the boys are thinking ‘that could be me, that should be me’, I’m going to put the work in and be there,” he said.

Flathead’s seven other medalists all finished fifth or sixth. They were Cody Devall (sixth, 113), Tucker Nadeau (fifth, 160), Matt Gash-Gilder (fifth, 170), Anthony Wright (sixth, 170), Logan Wilson (fifth, 182), Payton Boyce (sixth, 205) and Michael Lee (fifth, 285). Wright, Wilson and Boyce are seniors.

“Success breeds success,” Vasquez said. “Flathead in general is starting to believe. We’re starting to get on a roll. We’re starting to win at everything.”

Glacier collected 14 points as a team but did not have a podium finisher. Both Eli Horn (285) and Donavon Macura (160) lost their first matches on Saturday.