Flathead, Glacier Sending Nearly 40 to State Wrestling Meet

Kalispell’s two high schools both had impressive days at the Western AA divisional seeding tournament in Missoula on Feb. 2.

Flathead and Glacier qualified a combined 39 wrestlers for this weekend’s state championships, with the two-time defending Class AA champion Braves sending 22 and the Wolfpack 17 more. In addition, six Kalispell wrestlers won divisional titles, three from both schools. They were Glacier’s Cody Frost (113 pounds), Colby Martin (205) and Tre Krause (285); and Flathead’s Brendan Barnes (126), Fin Nadeau (132) and Tanner Russell (170).

The top eight wrestlers at each of 13 weight classes advanced to the state meet, which will be Feb. 8-9 at MetraPark in Billings.

Glacier excelled at the lowest and highest weights, with the Wolfpack qualifying two wrestlers each at 103, 113, 120, 205 and 285. Krause and Martin both rolled to division titles, scoring a combined five pins in six matches, all in the first round, while Thomas Putnam (103), Dylan Miller (113), Tristan Little (120) and Caden Willis (152) all finished fourth at their respective weight classes.

For Flathead, success came in the middle weights, where the Braves had a bevy of top-four placers, including Braden Comer (4th at 126), Dominic Battello (3rd at 132), Jaden MacNeil (3rd at 138), Ridge Troupe (3rd at 152) and Zaybin Stewart (4th at 160). Paxton Boyce (182) and Ross Calhoon (205) added fourth-place finishes of their own and Michael Downing was third at 285.

Flathead’s 22 qualifiers are the most of any school in Western AA. Missoula Big Sky qualified 18 and Missoula Sentinel had 17.