A new champion Flathead Brave has emerged on the mat.
Trae Vasquez capped his brilliant freshman season with a victory in the championship round of the Class AA state wrestling tournament in Billings last weekend. Vasquez won by decision, 8-7, over Timmy Garcia of Billings Skyview in the 113-pound division. Garcia was last year’s champion in the 106-pound division.
The title victory concluded Vasquez’s season with a 22-1 record and marked the latest state champion from one of the state’s all-time great wrestling programs. Flathead scored 112.5 points and placed sixth as a team, the best finish for the program since 2011, when the Braves took fifth. Last year Flathead finished 11th with 77.5 points and the year before that the team took 13th with 34 points.
Flathead brought 21 wrestlers to the state tournament this year after qualifying at the Western AA Seeding Tournament in Kalispell the week prior. Glacier had 10.
Among those competing at state, Flathead had several wrestlers rise to the occasion and bring home medals.
Dyan Guzman earned fourth place in the 126-pound division after dropping a narrow 2-1 decision to Jarren Komac of Great Falls in the third-place match.
Payton Hume also earned fourth-place, bringing home a medal in the 132-pound division. Jace Kovalicky of Missoula Sentinel earned a narrow 7-6 decision over Hume in the third-place match.
Logan Wilson earned fourth in the 182-pound division.
Matt Gash-Gilder finished sixth in the 170-pound division.
Glacier finished 13th as a team with 56 points. Justin Gibson placed fourth at 103 after Brayden Schwalbe of Billings Skyview won by decision, 10-3 in the third-place match. Teammate Cody Decker placed sixth in the 138-pound division. Quinn Barber, also of Glacier, earned fourth in the 152-pound division.
Great Falls claimed its third straight team trophy with 233 points, followed by Billings Senior, 194 and Missoula Sentinel, 159.
Click here for complete results.
Class A
Columbia Falls earned third place as a team and had three wrestlers compete in the championship match on Saturday in Billings.
Senior Shonn Roberts fell just short in his bid to win four consecutive state championships. The three-time champ and future University of Great Falls wrestler, competing in a higher weight class this season, earned second place in the championship match at 138 pounds. Jarrett Degen of Belgrade pinned Roberts late in the match to claim his own third straight title.
Roberts’ teammate, Haze Bell, also earned second place in the championship match at 126 pounds. Gresh Jones of Sidney pinned Bell to earn his fourth consecutive championship. Jones became only the 24th Montana high school wrestler to ever win four state titles. Forsyth’s Matt Weber later won his fourth title, with a 5-4 decision in the Class B championship match at 138 pounds, becoming the 25th member of the four-timers club.
Kaleb Gravelin earned runner-up in the 132-pound division after Grayson Brenna of Havre won by major decision, 11-3. Colton Gove placed third in the 145-pound division.
Spencer Ross earned third at 285 pounds and Storm Kemppainen placed sixth at 160 pounds.
The Mat Cats tallied 154 points. Havre won its third straight championship with 297 and Sidney was second with 268.
Garret Chapel of Libby/Troy pinned his opponent to claim his second consecutive championship at 170 pounds. Teammate Zach Crace placed third at 152 pounds.
Polson placed sixth as a team with 82 points. Tele Seemann placed sixth at 170 pounds. Mike Corrigan earned fourth at 205 pounds. Mateo Quinones placed fifth at 103 pounds. Cameron Brown earned fifth at 113 pounds.
Cody Lucke of Browning earned third at 170 pounds.
Whitefish’s Judah Prestegaard placed fifth in the 160-pound division.
Click here for complete results.
Class B/C
Zach Durden of Lincoln County placed second in the 120-pound division. Teammate Jonathan Schmidt earned fourth. Garrett White placed second in the 126-pound division. Kahden Bakkila placed sixth in the 113-pound division. James Dunn placed fifth at 138 pounds. Joe Fehr took sixth at 182 pounds.
Lincoln County took fourth as a team with 107 points.
Choteau won the championship with 188 points. Colstrip was second with 145. It was Choteau’s first championship since 1990.