Brave Brawlers win 4th straight Mining City Duals

BUTTE — The Flathead Brave Brawlers are no strangers to success, but four and 80 and pretty big numbers.

With a 36-28 win over Billings West Saturday, Flathead won the Mining City Duals for the fourth straight time — and extended the second-longest dual win streak in state history to 80. 

The final pitted the Brawlers against the two-time defending State AA champion Golden Bears. They started at 103 pounds and got a forfeit win from Aiden Lake. 

“Then we got a nice win from our freshman, Caleb Poe-Hatten,” said Tucker Nadeau, who was acting coach while Jeff Thompson was away from the team. “Then probably the match of the night followed that up, at 118 when Kellen Downing beat a defending state champion.” 

Downing, third at 103 pounds at state last year, beat Zach Morse — the defending AA champ at 120 — 13-6.  

“He looked really confident and I'm looking forward to seeing how he moves forward after that,” Nadeau said of Downing. 

Flathead surged through the middle weights, with major decisions from Diesel Thompson, Hunter Arriaga and Brett Chivers, a pin from Aiden Downing at 144 and a decision from Dane Lake. 

Lake’s win at 157 gave his team a healthy 36-12 lead; Billings West won the last five weight classes, but when Gabe Rosales couldn’t get the pin at 175 it was clinched. The Bears couldn’t score enough to catch the Brawlers. 

Flathead beat Great Falls CMR 49-24 and Great Falls High 54-25 as well Saturday.  

Not all dual results were posted to trackwrestling.com, but Nadeau noted one Brawler stood out. 

“Aiden Downing,” he said. “He’s stepped up his leadership and his wrestling and it really showed this weekend, with all pins and the Outstanding Wrestler award.” 

Flathead’s next action is the Great Falls Invitational next weekend. The squad surpassed Sidney’s 76 straight duals wins with three wins Friday. Butte has the record of 112. 

“It’s early and we’re still building but we’re excited about how the guys have bought in to our philosophy,” Nadeau said. “From the seniors all the way down to the freshman they’ve stepped up in big ways.” 

Glacier split a pair of consolation round duals on Saturday, losing to Missoula Big Sky and edging out Frenchtown 42-41. 

Niko Coles picked up two pins at 165, as did Tristan Hall (215) and Aiden Sweat (110). Jerin Coles notched a technical fall and a pin for the Pack. 

Mining City Duals 

Saturday in Butte 

Consolation Bracket 

Missoula Big Sky 53, Glacier 23 

Ronan 48, Browning 36 

CMR JV 45, Polson 27 

Glacier 42, Frenchtown 41 

Ronan 42, Three Forks 27 

Championship Bracket 

Missoula Sentinel 42, Billings Skyview 29 

Billings Senior 46, Helena Capital 30 

Gallatin 40, South Fremont (Idaho) 33 

Great Falls 64, Columbia Falls 16 

Billings West 66, Missoula Sentinel 3 

Billings Senior 53, Butte 28 

Great Falls 51, Gallatin 21 

Flathead 49, Great Falls CMR 24 

Skyview 46, CMR 34 

Capital 41, Gallatin 37 

Butte 54, South Fremont 28 

Sentinel 56, Columbia Falls 24 

Skyview 42, Capital 33 

Butte 40, Sentinel 34 

Billings West 58, Senior 14, semifinal 

Flathead 54, Great Falls 25, semifinal 

Butte 58, Skyview 18, fifth 

Great Falls 41, Senior 35, third 

Championship 

Flathead 36, Billings West 28 

103 — Aiden Lake, Flathead, won by forfeit. 110 — Caleb Poe-Hatten, Flathead, p. Braylon Walston 5:41; 118 — Kellen Downing, Flathead, d. Zach Morse 13-6. 126 — Diesel Thompson, Flathead, maj.dec. Braxton Barent, 13-5; 132 — Hunter Arriaga, Flathead, maj.dec. Logan Shores 13-4. 138 — Makael Aguayo, West, p. Daniel Evert 1:45; 144 — Aiden Downing, Flathead, p. Carter Sanderson :43. 150 — Brett Chivers, Flathead, maj.dec. Josh Garcia 16-5; 157 — Dane Lake, Flathead, dec. Jack Ryan 10-7; 165 — Boden Bentley, West, dec. Lane Chivers 8-4; 175 — Gabe Rosales, West, maj.dec. Clifford Nance 11-2; 190 — Anthony Garcia, West, p. Kohen Riley 3:04. 215 — Colby Reichenbach, West, dec. Conor Leduc 10-3; 285 — Christian Allen, West, p. Logan Downs :36.