A year after finishing second at the Class AA state wrestling tournament, Glacier High School broke through over the weekend with its first state title in school history.
The Wolfpack finished with 253 points at the Class AA state tournament in Billings on Feb. 10-11, edging out Great Falls (238), Billings Skyview (224) and Billings Senior (218.5). Head coach Mark Fischer said the title was the perfect ending to an “unbelievable season.”
“You just see these kids come in and dedicate so much of their lives to the sport,” Fischer said. “It’s so emotional to see all of that work pay off in the end.”
“I don’t think there’s a team out there that deserves it more,” he added.
Fittingly, it was senior leader Shane St. Onge who all but ensured the title for the Wolfpack on the tournament’s final day. Once St. Onge won the 160-pound championship with a 9-5 decision over Skyview’s Sam Shelton, Fischer said Glacier was in the driver’s seat for the rest of the tournament.
In the past two years, St. Onge has battled back from injuries sustained in a severe car accident as well as a blood clot in his shoulder that kept him sidelined from athletics. The title over the weekend was the first of his career.
“What an amazing individual, first of all, and then to finish off with that win was amazing,” Fischer said. “It pretty much sealed the title for us, which was the cool thing.”
St. Onge was Glacier’s lone individual champion, though the Wolfpack had three second-place finishers: Lucas Mantel (135), Lane Armstrong (189) and Mack Sutherland (heavyweight). Overall Glacier had 13 wrestlers finish in the top five.
Flathead’s Larry Francis capped of his impressive season with a title in the 171-pound division. Francis defeated Skyview’s Trey Dillon with a 3-2 decision in the championship. As a team, Flathead finished 10th out of 14 teams with 93.5 points.
In Class A, the highest finishing local team was Polson. The Pirates came in seventh with 98 points. Corvallis won the tournament with 222.5 points, slipping past second-place Laurel with 215. Columbia Falls was ninth (96), Libby/Troy was 10th (79.5), Frenchtown/Alberton was 12th (72) and Whitefish was 17th (30).
The only two wrestlers from the Flathead Valley to make it to the finals were Whitefish’s Wolf Zinke (heavyweight) and Columbia Falls’ Shonn Roberts (98). Roberts won the title with a 4-0 decision over Havre’s Grayson Brenna. Zinke finished second. Also, Libby had two state champions: Kyle Leir (145) and Mitch Haugen (130).
In Class B/C, Ronan finished fifth with 85 points. Forsyth won the title with 211 points ahead of second-place Choteau with 161.5. St. Ignatius/Charlo was 14th (56.5) and Eureka finished 20th (41.5).
Fischer is pleased with Glacier’s accomplishments and believes the foundation has been laid for future success as well. He said this year’s graduating class played a big role in establishing that foundation and feels “confident that next year we can make a run as well.”
“This was a tremendous group of seniors – we owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to them,” Fischer said. “Now hopefully those younger guys can watch what that was like and follow in their footsteps. They set the tone for all of the next generations of this program.”