Windauer, MatCats are going big

A year ago the Columbia Falls MatCats were a formidable team that was beset by injuries as the postseason approached.

This season brought more injuries, but they came earlier: Now the MatCats are healthy and appear deep enough to win the program’s first State A title since 1990.

“I’ve never really been in this situation before,” Justin Windauer, Columbia Falls’ returning individual state champion, said. “Where we could have three or four guys in the state finals. That’s pretty cool.

“I think some of those guys can win it, and I’d have somebody to be in the finals with.”

When the last Class A rankings came out on Jan. 25, Columbia Falls was ranked first; but MatCats like Winslow Peters, Chris Rathjen, Billy Gustafson and Josiah Kilman weren’t ranked at all.

Kilman (152 pounds) and Peters (138) became Western A Divisional champs last week; Rathjen took fourth at 138 and Gustafson was third at 145.

In all eight Columbia Falls wrestlers finished in the top three. Mainstays Tyler Gilfrey (126) and Windauer (160) also won divisional titles, with Windauer running his season record on the mat to 40-0.

This season Windauer had his sights set on Sidney’s Zander Dean, who beat Windauer for the 126-pound title in 2021, and in the semifinals at 113 the year before.

Then things took a left turn.

“I was at 152. … and I really wanted to face him,” Windauer said. “Then I saw he moved down to 145.”

Cutting down was out of the question for Windauer; instead, he bumped up to 160. The move turned out swimmingly for the MatCats at divisionals, because Kilman and Blaise Cronk — Windauer’s wrestling partner since fifth grade — went 1-2 at Windauer’s former weight.

Windauer pinned three opponents in a total of 80 seconds before taking a forfeit win in the 160 finals.

“Blaise Cronk, he’s done very well, so we moved me on up and we have Blaise and Josiah there, which is pretty nice,” Windauer said. “I basically moved for team scoring.”

Even before winning state at 138 last year (while Dean took the 145 title, his second), Windauer was on the radar of colleges. He’s headed to MSU-Northern in Havre to wrestle and study civil engineering.

“My brother (Ben, a football player at Montana Tech) is on the same path,” he said.

But the current hurdle is state, where Columbia Falls is among a half dozen teams — including five-time defending champion Sidney, though the Eagles slipped to third at the Eastern A Divisional.

Other threats are Frenchtown, Ronan, Eastern A Divisional champion Miles City and Laurel. Columbia Falls is seeking its first trophy since finishing a distant second to Havre in 2017. That capped a nice four-year run for the MatCats, who took home third-place trophies in 2014-15 and were fourth in 2016.

It could come down to the final finals match on Saturday evening at First Interstate Arena.

Also facing the unknown is Windauer, since he hasn’t wrestled any of the Eastern A’s 160-pounders.

“I’ve watched them all, at the Class A duals,” he noted. “I’m kind of going in blind. But I think it will all turn out OK.”

Points or no points

Flathead coach Jeff Thompson is a positive guy, but he’s a little miffed at Class AA’s top-13 approach to this year’s state tournament.

If all 20 of the Brave Brawlers won matches at state, only the top 13 point-getters will count toward their team total.

“Two of your scorers could be at the same weight,” said Thompson, whose twin boys Anders and Gunnar are 170. “Why would you not want everyone who qualifies for the state championship to be a team scorer? It just doesn’t make sense.”

It might benefit Flathead in that Billings West advanced 24 wrestlers to state, while Flathead, Butte and Great Falls High bring 20. But Thompson, who said he was the only AA coach to vote against the scoring change, would rather have the points.

“Why is wrestling any different than state track or state swimming?” he wondered.

As for the weekend, Flathead has Gabe Lake (160), Anders Thompson, Noah Poe-Hatten (182) and Sawyer Troupe (205) all ranked in the top two in their weight classes, and loads of depth besides. As often is the case, wrestle-backs could be key.

“This is just another business trip for this team,” Jeff Thompson said. “We are relaxed and ready to go to work on the mats.

“These Flathead wrestlers have been wrestling some of the best competition around the country this last year and just love the fight.”

Glacier has, in addition to potential four-time state champion Teegan Vasquez, Kaleb Shine wrestling very well at 152 pounds.

State B-C

Huntley Project, which broke Glasgow’s two-year hold on the State B/C title, is favored to repeat. The Red Devils have returning champions in Gavin Nedens and Cooper Lane.

Eureka freshman Timothy Schmidt, who beat defending state champion Brayden Linville of Three Forks to win last week’s Western B/C 113 title, is a threat to top the podium Saturday, as is Eli Ratliff (160) of Thompson Falls. Ratliff was second at 152 a year ago.