Brawlers, MatCats have titles in sight

BILLINGS — Another Flathead sweep seems like a long shot after one day’s action at the All-Class State Wrestling meet at First Interstate Arena.

But the Brave Brawlers are looking good.

Eleven Flathead boys advanced through the afternoon quarterfinals to Saturday’s morning semifinals. Billings West, which brought 24 wrestlers to state and figure to be the Brawlers’ biggest threat, advanced five. Helena Capital put six in the semifinals.

“Our goal was 10,” said coach Jeff Thompson, whose Brawlers rang up 150.5 points Friday, to 145 for West, 93 for Billings Senior and 90.5 for Capital. “And we snuck an extra one in there, and that’s a great day.”

Diesel Thompson (113 pounds), William Barnes (120), Aiden Downing (126), Dane Lake (138), Logan Stansberry (145), Cade Troupe (152), Gabe Lake (160), Anders and Gunnar Thompson (170), Noah Poe-Hatten (182) and Sawyer Troupe (205) all will wrestle in semifinals.

Anders and Gunnar Thompson, twin juniors whose dad is Jeff, will face each other Saturday morning.

“I don’t know what they’ll do,” said the coach, smiling. “I’ll leave it up to Gunnar and Anders — let them decide if they want to wrestle. It’s in their hands. I’m just a happy camper that they both made it.”

There is, as Thompson said a couple times, “more to prove tomorrow.”

Anders and Gunnar Thompson are across the bracket from Billings Skyview’s Paolo Salminen, who is 40-0 and beat Anders for a state title last year. Cade Troupe has a tough matchup with Great Falls’ Irish Furthmyre, ranked No. 1 at 152. Barnes draws defending state champion Keyan Hernandez of West.

West had a great Friday evening “blood round,” scoring 27 points.

On the other hand Thompson was hoping to split a handful of what he called 50-50 matches and his team came up large. Barnes is maybe the best example: He got taken down early, then traded three reversals with Billings Senior’s Max Dewitt before coming out of the last one with Dewitt in a cradle — and a pin in 5 minutes, 35 seconds.

“You look at 120 with William Barnes, that was on paper maybe a 50-50 match and he showed up, man, and found a way to win and get the pin,” Thompson said. “At 126, Aiden lost to that Bozeman kid (Elijah Carroll) earlier in the year but man, he came up big and got a major decision (10-2). That just shows you his progression and improvement throughout the season.”

Stansberry beat West’s Dash Nugent 11-3 at 145; Gunnar Thompson scored a 3-0 win over another West wrestler, Anthony Garcia.

“A very tough style to wrestle,” Jeff Thompson noted. “But Gunnar figured it out, wrestled smart and won the chess match.”

To no one’s surprise Glacier’s Teegan Vasquez picked up two pins —the first in 11 seconds, the second in 2:21 — to make the 132-pound semifinals.

Vasquez is on pace to join a select group of four-time Montana state champions: The list numbers 37 currently, and Bozeman’s Avery Allen seems ready to join the list after two more wins Friday at 145.

Vasquez is the lone Glacier semifinalist; Kaleb Shine lost in overtime in the 152 quarters to Belgrade’s Logan Linn.

“Tough day overall,” Glacier coach Ross Dankers said. “Definitely seemed like things did not fall our way in a lot of situations.

“Teegan looked really mentally locked in and I’m excited for him tomorrow.”

Matcats leading State A

Columbia Falls made a statement early when 138-pounder Chris Rathjen knocked off three-time State A champion Owen Lonski of Sidney in the first round, 9-6.

Rathjen scored another decision, 14-8 over Livingston’s Gage McGillvray, and joined eight other Matcats in the semifinals: The others are Traic Fainter (103), Tyler Gilfrey (126), Winslow Peters (138), Billy Gustafnson (145), Blaise Cronk and Josiah Kilman at 152, Justin Windauer at 160, and Brandon Role at 182.

Lonski had 30 wins this season.

Windauer faced an early challenge from Laurel’s Beau Mares, trailing 4-2 early, before he got the Locomotive on his back and eventually scored a pin in 3:05.

Columbia Falls had 108 points after Friday’s action; Miles City was next with 82 and Laurel had 80, five more than five-time defending champion Sidney.

The MatCats, meanwhile, are hunting their first crown since 1990 and third ever.

Like Windauer, Libby’s Jace DeShazer is on pace for his second straight individual title, scoring two quick pins at 205.

Ronan put three wrestlers in the semifinals: August Courville at 103, Landon Bishop at 160 Ridge Cote at 120.

Browning’s Tahj Wells scored two major decisions to make the 145 semis; teammate Brendyn Whiteman scored two pins at 285.

Eureka 3rd in B/C

Huntley Project is, as expected, leading the B/C team race with 103 points. Three Forks is next at 77.5 and after the Wolves are the Eureka Lions at 65.

The Lions put Timothy Schmidt (113), Blake Lancaster (113), Caden Pecora (152), Wes Banks 9205) and Riley Hume (285) into the semifinals.

Thompson Falls saw Eli Ratliff surge into the semifinals at 160; teammate Max Hannum joined him with two pins at 170.