All-class State Wrestling, Including Girls Tourney, Will Return to Metra in 2022

Billings will once again be home to the all-class state wrestling tournament at First Interstate Arena at MetraPark in 2022.

And come this February, the action will intensify as the girls classification will be added to the Metra mix.

Last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the State AA tournament was at Kalispell Flathead High School, State A was held at Custer County District High School in Miles City, State B-C was at Shelby High School, and the inaugural girls state tourney was at Lockwood.

“We are planning on moving forward with the all-class tournament and included in that will be the girls as well, and the girls will be wrestling at the tournament,” said Brian Michelotti, associate director of the Montana High School association and the state wrestling tournament manager.

The state tournament dates are Feb. 10-12, 2022. The Thursday date was added because all the girls who wrestle in the regular season will qualify for state and wrestle in a single-classification state tourney. Like last year, there won’t be any girls divisional tourneys. At state, girls will only wrestle against girls. Girls can wrestle against boys and girls in the regular season.

The high school wrestling season begins Friday for Classes A, B and C, and on Dec. 10 for Class AA, which voted to start its season a week later to allow a longer break between seasons and to give student-athletes and coaches more time together over Thanksgiving.

Last year, Michelotti said there were 144 girls who competed at the state tourneys. The number of girls who come out for the sport this year won’t be known until the weight certification is completed around the beginning of the new year.

The 6 p.m. Thursday evening start for the girls would be in case any of the girls weight divisions have more than 16 wrestlers. A traditional bracket has included 16 wrestlers. The boys wrestlers will start Friday, Feb. 11.

“We’d wrestle down until there were 16 in the brackets,” Michelotti said of the girls competition beginning Thursday, Feb. 10, noting the girls would then break for the day and continue Friday.

With the Thursday competition added, practice at the Metra would be from 1 to approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday, and then the arena would be cleared. Girls wrestlers would then weigh in and any bracket with more than 16 competitors would begin.

The Friday schedule will look much like normal years.

Weigh-ins would be at 8 a.m. Friday, the parade of athletes would begin at approximately 10 a.m. and the first round at 10:20 a.m.

The big difference would be instead of Classes AA, A and B-C each competing on four mats, the divisions would take place on three mats. The girls would also have three mats, for 12 total mats for AA, A, B-C and girls.

Thus, Michelotti said competition Friday will probably run an hour or so later than normal.

“If a class finished early, we’d move over to that other mat to keep with our round schedule,” he said.

On Saturday, officials don’t foresee any schedule changes. Weigh-ins would be at 8 a.m., the semifinal round starting at 9:30 a.m., the consolation semifinals at 11:30 a.m., the consolation finals at 1:30 p.m. and the finals at 3:30 p.m.

“We are excited about the girls side of things and incorporating the girls into the boys wrestling tournament,” Michelotti said.

Girls wrestling is in the second year of a two-year pilot program and will be reviewed at the end of the season. The MHSA could look at adding divisionals to the girls wrestling schedule.

“Most likely in the future, we’ll institute a divisional and bring 16 per class, like in the boys side of things,” Michelotti said.

While Michelotti is unsure of how many girls wrestlers will compete this year, he does expect to see growth from last season.

“We are expecting good numbers and expecting them to go up quite a bit,” he said. “We just don’t know how much at this point.”