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Mat Champ: Vasquez Completes Perfect Season with State Title

Polson claims second place in Class A; Eureka earns second in Class B/C

By Dillon Tabish
Flathead High School's Trae Vasquez. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

No. 41 only took 42 seconds.

Flathead sophomore Trae Vasquez completed an undefeated wrestling season last weekend in dominating fashion, pinning his opponent Austin Ketchum of Billings Skyview in under a minute in the 120-pound championship match at the state tournament at Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark in Billings.

Vasquez logged three pins in four matches at the state tournament and earned the Class AA Quick Pin Award and capped a 41-0 season that will go down as one of the most dominant in recent history in Montana. Vasquez, who won the 113-pound title a year ago and is an All-American in the national ranks, has only lost two matches in the last two regular seasons.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” Vasquez’s father and Flathead’s head coach, Rich, said of the latest championship.

The individual victory helped Flathead bring home a third-place team trophy, the program’s first top-three hardware since 2010. The Braves tallied 155 points, 42.5 more than a year ago at state. Billings Senior won the championship with 236 and Missoula Sentinel was second with 190.5.

Flathead’s Hunter Rush placed second at 103 pounds. Tucker Nadeau earned fifth at 160 pounds, Matt Gash-Gilder was fifth at 170, Logan Wilson was fifth at 182 and Michael Lee was fifth at 285. Payton Boyce was sixth at 205 and Cody Devall was sixth at 113.

“I was really proud of the guys. I think they’re learning how to win again and they’ve helped turn this thing around,” third-year coach Rich Vasquez said. “We’re getting that culture of winning again, and these guys are hungry. I could see it in their eyes — they watched the other guys on the podium and saw the team with the championship, and I could see that they were ready to work. I could see it in their eyes.”

Flathead was without one of its top grapplers at the tournament. Payton Hume, a sophomore and the top-ranked 138-pound wrestler, was ineligible due to a coaching mistake that led to a violation of the Montana High School Association’s so-called 50 percent rule, which sets weight-control standards for health and safety reasons. Vasquez admitted his coaching staff had made a “clerical error” and failed to document one of Hume’s official weigh-ins, which tipped the scale when it came time for him to qualify at 138 pounds.

Glacier tallied 14 points at the state tournament.

Polson Earns Second Place as a Team

A rejuvenated Polson Pirates squad placed second as a team in the Class A ranks, the program’s best finish in a decade.

The Pirates tallied 147.5 points. Havre won with 213. Hardin was third with 114.5 Columbia Falls placed fourth with 113.

The Pirates re-emergence as a trophy team came a year after placing sixth with 82 points. It was the first top-three finish since 2007, when the Pirates earned third, and the best since 2005, when Polson earned its second consecutive runner-up trophy.

Polson’s power was on full display in the final day of action at the state tournament in Billings. Mateo Quinones placed third at 103 pounds, Bridger Wenzel earned third at 120, Cameron Brown was third at 132, Jaben Wenzel was third at 138. Thunder Morales placed fourth at 126 pounds, Parker Adler was fourth at 145 and Mike Corrigan was fourth at 205.

For Columbia Falls, Mason Fetters placed second at 145, Ben Windauer placed third at 126, Hunter Peterson was fourth at 132, Storm Kemppainen was fifth at 170, Winfield West placed fifth at 113 and Colten McPhee was sixth at 160.

For Whitefish, which tallied 34 points, Steven Quimby placed fifth at 285 and Konrad Zinke was sixth at 170.

Eureka Takes Second in Class B/C

The Eureka Lions capped their best season in 25 years with a second-place finish as a team in Class B/C.

Eureka, propelled by five top-three finishes, tallied 127.5 points. Colstrip won the championship with 211.5 and Choteau was third with 118.

Eureka’s Cannan Smith was second at 145, Joe Fehr was second at 205, Jonathan Schmidt placed third at 126 pounds, Josh Schmidt was third at 138, Garrett Graves was third at 170 and Kaelan Yanak was sixth at 285.

Libby’s Buddy Doolin earned second at 103 pounds. Libby tallied 32.5 points and Bigfork had 10.

Thompson Falls had 60 points. David Crowe placed third at 103 and Garrett Jones was sixth. Teammate Kyle Milner was sixth at 170.

Plains-Hot Springs had 33 points. Jake Lile placed fourth at 145 and Daniel Uli placed sixth at 113.