Back on the road: Glacier, Flathead wrestlers in top tournaments

Glacier has a two-time state champion amid a burgeoning team. Flathead has the makings of a repeat.

Now both boys teams get another early test, heading to high-profile tournaments this weekend, the last before Christmas break. The Wolfpack boys and girls head to the Great Falls Invitational, while Flathead competes in both the Tri-State Invitational in Coeur d’Alene and the Best of the West meets in Pasco, Wash.

A 14-0 dual record for the boys, a state championship for the boys (not to mention the girls), and a promising start to the 2021-22 season all has Flathead thinking big.

Eleven “Brave Brawlers” are among the top six in their weight classes, in the first Class AA rankings that were released this week.

That includes Noah Poe-Hatten and Fin Nadeau, ranked first at 182 and 145 pounds. Both finished second at state in March, as did Asher Kemppainen. The Braves, coming off their Mining City Duals championship, also claimed the No. 1 ranking among AA teams this week.

Flathead coach Jeff Thompson had 45 boys competing and is counting on seniors Nadeau, Kemppainen (ranked fourth at 138) and Chase Youso (ranked second at 205) for leadership.

“There is a lot of mat time on this team, with most of these wrestlers on mats 10 or 11 months a year,” Thompson said. “A lot of these wrestlers are getting well over 100 matches a year.”

Thompson took his boys to the Western States Championships over the summer, where they finished fifth among 20 teams. Poe-Hatten went to the Junior Nationals where he finished third in Greco.

Thompson noted encouraging early performances from Diesel Thompson (no relation), Aiden Downing, Dane Lake, as well as returnees Sawyer Troupe and Davin Naldrett.

Most of the ranked wrestlers are headed to Tri-State, along with Flathead’s girls – the second-ever team of Bravettes will get a dose of higher competition, with Washington having embraced high school girls wrestling for a longer time.

Glacier has three ranked wrestlers, and it’d be tough to find anybody more accomplished than two-time state champion Teegan Vazquez. The junior is wrestling at 132 pounds this year.

“He’s really stepped into a leadership role,” Glacier coach Ross Dankers said. “He’s one of the older guys, and brings in that wealth of knowledge and technical background. The kids obviously look up to him, for what he does in the classroom and on the mat.”

Dankers has 40 boys (and 15 girls) competing, and the list includes ranked wrestlers Royce Conklin (170) and Kaleb Shine (138).

Conklin had his junior season cut short by injury; now he’s a vocal leader for the Pack. Dankers otherwise has a pretty young team that includes sophomores Aiden Krause and TJ Gannon, who both wrestle 182 and Garrett Bosch at 113.

Together they helped the Pack beat powerful Great Falls High at the Mining City Duals.

“Garrett went up against some of the top guys at 113, and we’re looking to see if he can make 103 maybe later on,” Dankers said. “Josh Melton, he’s moved up a couple weights but he’s working into the weight class well. He’s just real smooth.”

Wrestling cross-town, Glacier was ninth at the State AA in March.

“Gosh, we only lost a couple guys from that lineup last year,” Danker said. “Everyone comes back and has gotten a little better. I would love to be in that top five, in that conversation. We have one senior. We could have a lot of growth happen this year.

In March Flathead had the luxury of hosting the State AA boys tournament to close a pandemic-affected season. The Braves prevailed over salty opponents Billings Senior (by 7.5 points) and Great Falls High, while Glacier finished ninth out of 15 teams.

This year’s tournament is back to being All-Class, and back at the Billings Metra Feb. 11-12.

Senior, Great Falls and Billings West will be pushing again, but the Brave Brawlers may not let the door open. They will be used to those long road trips; on Thursday Flathead’s buses had to stop and chain up Fourth of July pass.

“We just have dudes that know how to wrestle,” Thompson said. “Everyone in our room is tough.”

AA Wrestling rankings

Here are the State AA wrestling rankings, compiled from voting coaches across the class. Team rankings are based on the individuals, with points awarded being 16-12-9-7-5-3 based on ranking 1 through 6:

Team — 1, Flathead 103, Billings West 88, 3, Great Falls High 80, Billings Senior 78; 5, Belgrade 73; 6, Butte 63.

Individual

103 — 1, Nolan Brown, Belgrade; 2, Zach Morse, West; 3, Davin Naldrett, Flathead; 4, Reid Whitlock, Butte; 5, Eli Frisino, Bozeman; 6, Tristan Vladic, Senior.

113 — 1, Keyan Hernandez, West; 2, Colton Gutenberger, Belgrade; 3, Aiden Downing, Flathead; 4, Logan Younkin, CMR; 5, Trey Whitlock, Butte; 6, Cole Krustfeldt, Senior.

120 — 1, Mason Gutenberger, Butte; 2, Jase Van Pelt, West; 3, Kyler Raiha, Butte; 4, Gage Clothier, GFH; 5, Daylon Forshee, Senior; 6, Diesel Thompson, Flathead.

126 — Carter Schmidt, Belgrade; 2, Kale Baumann, GFH, 3, Demetrius Saliaris, Senior; 4, Dane Lake, Flathead; 5, Hunter Rahn, Capital; 6, Karson Pumnea, Butte.

132 — Teegan Vasquez, Glacier; 2, Idren Peak, Senior; 3, Kip Pumnea, Butte; 4, Hunter Ketchum, Skyview; 5, Grant O’Neill, Great Falls; 6, Talen Barrington, Skyview.

138 — 1, Carson DesRosier, Capital; 2, Jesse Aarness, West; 3, Jalen Vladic, Senior; 4, Asher Kemppainen, Flathead; 5, Kaleb Shine, Glacier; 6, Talen Barrington, Skyview.

145 — 1, Fin Nadeau, Flathead; 2, Irish Furthmyre, GFH; 3, Israel Moreno, Big Sky; 4, James Roan, Senior; 5, Connor Konda, Butte; 6, Cooper McGovern, Gallatin.

152 — 1, Avery Allen, Bozeman; 2, Dylan Block, GFH; 3, Calvin Carroll, CMR; 4, Cole Graham, Capital; 5, Logan Linn, Belgrade; 6, Trey Hanson, Butte.

160 — 1, Drake Rhodes, West; 2, Gabe Lake, Flathead; 3, Felix Peterson, Gallatin; 4, Gabriel Price, CMR; 5, Conner Kovick, Capital; 6, Trevor Tucker, Sentinel.

170 — 1, Paolo Salminen, Skyview; 2, AJ Lafurge, CMR; 3, Anders Thompson, Flathead; 4, Shawn Miller, Senior; 5, Cooper Freitag, West; 6, Royce Conklin, Glacier.

182 — 1, Noah Poe-Hatten, Flathead; 2, Mason Christian, Butte; 3, Chris Garcia, West; 4, Hayden Allie, Senior; 5, Riley Downey, Butte; 6, Bed Rodger, Belgrade.

205 — 1, Bradnan Lockart, GFH; 2, Chase Youso, Flathead; 3, Charlie Desmarias, Senior; 4, Dillen Barrington, Skyview; 5, Xaden Cunningham, Belgrade; 6, Sawyer Troupe, Flathead.

285 — 1, Raven Hensley, GFH; 2, Oakley Woody, Gallatin; 3, Paul Mousel, Capital; 4, Max Lee, Senior; 5, Kade Schleeman, Butte; 6, Brock Goff, West.