Glacier wrestlers quarantined; Flathead grapplers still heading to Helena

Glacier High’s wrestling season has hit a road bump with a COVID-19 quarantine that will keep the Wolfpack out of action until next week.

That means the Pack will not participate in Friday’s duals at Helena. Flathead, however, is still making the trip.

“We’re going to be quarantined until next Wednesday,” Glacier activities director Mark Dennehy said, adding it will be tough to make up the duals. “It’s the ebb and flow of COVID, unfortunately. It happened, and we just want to mitigate the best we can.”

Glacier and Flathead had a crosstown dual last week; Flathead wrestling coach Jeff Thompson was informed of Glacier’s positive tests.

“It looks like we dodged a bullet,” Thompson said. “The kids that wrestled their kids that tested positive are quarantined. We’re still going to Helena for the duals Friday.”

Dennehy said all of the Wolfpack wrestlers have been encouraged to get tested, and those tests could affect the length of the quarantine. Both schools are to head to Missoula for duals with Sentinel and Big Sky a week from Friday.

Flathead, No. 2 in the latest wrestling rankings, could get pushed Friday by No. 6 Helena Capital.

Within that dual, the Brave Brawlers will see a 1 vs. 2 individual showdown at 138 pounds between Capital’s Carson DesRosier and Asher Kemppainen. Both wrestlers are unbeaten.

Also of note is a heavyweight matchup between Flathead’s Timber Richberg and Capitals’ Talon Marsh.

On Thursday the Helena girls’ basketball teams are in Kalispell: Capital plays at Flathead while Helena High visits Glacier. The boys’ matchups are the same, but in Helena.

Saturday Glacier’s boys play host to Capital, while the Flathead boys bring in Helena High.

Flathead boasts two of the top five scorers in the Western AA in Joston Cripe (20.7 points per game) and Hunter Hickey (14.7).

Updated standings and statistical leaders can be found on Page B2.

Flathead’s Lily Milner and Whitefish’s Ada Qunell sit atop the rankings in their girls’ swimming events.

The website 406mtsports.com listed the top 10 for each swimming event, as compiled by the Montana High School Association.

Milner leads all swimmers, in Classes AA and A, in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 52.53 seconds and the 100 backstroke at 59.44.

Qunell leads in three events: 200 freestyle (1:55.3), 200 freestyle (1:55.3) and 200 individual medley (2:11.71). Qunell is also fourth in the 100 breaststroke.

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Other ranked swimmers in the Valley are, for girls:

Glacier’s Eden Flake, second in the 50 free and fifth in the 100 free; Whitefish’s Helena Kunz, seventh in the 50 free; and Bigfork’s Sophie Logue, eighth in the 100 butterfly.

Among the boys:

Glacier’s Isaac Keim is fifth in the 100 backstroke, ninth in the 200 free and 10th in the 50 free; Glacier’s Andrew Bouda is ninth in the 500 free; Glacier’s Xander Stout is ninth in both the 100 butterfly and 200 IM;

Flathead’s Ayden Strobbe-Barry is fifth in the 50 free and 10th in the 100 free; teammate Derek Smith is eighth in the 100 back stroke and the Braves’ Isaac Bertrand is sixth in the 100 breaststroke and seventh in the 200 IM;

Whitefish’s Logan Botner is seventh in the 100 fly and 10th in the 100 backstroke;

And Connor Cheff of Columbia Falls is ninth in the boys 100 breaststroke.