The way Jeff Thompson sees it, it’s a four-team race at the State AA boys wrestling meet that begins Friday at First Interstate Arena.

But his Brave Brawlers will be right there with defending champion Billings West and Eastern AA powers Billings Senior and Great Falls.

“The Brave Brawlers are healthy and ready to go to work tomorrow,” Thompson said. “We just have to win the matches we are supposed to and get a handful of upsets to keep us in the running.

“It’s going to be an exciting and interesting tournament for the AA boys — it’s going to be one of the wildest and closest state races in years.”

West snapped Flathead’s two-year hold on the team championship, and Thompson would like nothing more than to get back to the top in Billings. It would be his ninth state championship in 16 seasons as coach.

The Golden Bears are led by Keyan Hernandez at 126 pounds, an Iowa signee who is gunning to be West’s first four-time state champion and just the 41st in state history. 

Hernandez was one of five wrestlers to win Eastern AA titles last week: the others are Zach Morse (120), Makael Aguayo (132), Anthony Garcia (182) and Cooper Freitag (205).

Flathead had six Western AA champs: Kellen Downing (103), Hunter Arriaga (120), Diesel Thompson (126), Daniel Evert (138), Anders Thompson (205) and Sawyer Troupe (285).

That suggests some interesting brackets in the Magic City. 

On Dec. 9 Flathead beat West 34-31 to win the Mining City Duals in Butte, and among the key wins was Diesel Thompson’s 2-1 decision over Aguayo. 

Anders Thompson, who has signed with Oklahoma, pinned Freitag in that dual; his twin Gunnar Thompson was a scratch because of a knee injury, but since then lost another match with Garcia by one point.

Morris wrestled 113 at Butte, but now is in the same bracket with Arriaga.

“We have some good tough matches right out of the gate with West and Great Falls High,” Thompson said. “We have got to be ready to roll at 9 a.m.”

State A

In the A ranks, defending champion Columbia Falls is part of a large group of state title contenders, with Ronan possibly giving the Western A a second straight champ.

The Wildcats’ Traic Fainter, a senior, is a divisional champion and could face his freshman brother Lyrik again at State; the two met in the Western A semifinals and Traic won by fall. 

Traic Fainter was third at 103 a year ago; Columbia Falls also had divisional champs in Rowdy Crump (182) and Blaise Cronk (160), while Winslow Peters was second. At last year’s state meet Crump was third at 170, Cronk was third at 152 and Peters was sixth at 138.

Ronan edged Frenchtown 268-262.5 for the Western A title, winning a pair of finals matchups from the Broncs to move ahead. The Chiefs were eighth at state a year ago, but Ridge Cote, James Courville, Koda King and Landon Bishop all won divisional titles. 

Sidney, which saw its five-year championship streak ended by Columbia Falls, is in the mix along with Eastern A Divisional champion Laurel and newcomer Lockwood, which has two returning champs in junior Cole Krutzfeldt and sophomore Brody Ketterling.

Reece Graves is a returning champ for Sidney, topping a tough 145-pound bracket that includes Browning’s Tahj Wells, who was a runner-up at 145 a year ago.

Senior Jace DeShazer of Libby is a decided favorite at 205 pounds; he won the same weight class a year ago.

State B-C

Eureka, third a year ago at State, took second at last week’s Western B-C Divisional in Shelby, behind Florence.

The Lions boasted one divisional champion in sophomore Timothy Schmidt at 120 pounds and three runners-up: Colin Hickman at 113, Caden Pecora at 170 and Josh Lambertson at 138.

Schmidt won the 113-pound state title last February as a freshman. Pecora was third at 152.

Huntley Project is the defending champion and will be tough to unseat, though there is one less program for the Lions to climb past: Three Forks, second at last year’s B-C meet, moved into Class A for wrestling.

Girls

Ronan was the best of the rest a year ago, outpointing all the other schools from Classes A, B and C. This weekend the Maidens might close the gap on AA champion Billings Senior, Butte, Flathead and Glacier.

Seven Ronan wrestlers placed either first or second at the Western A Divisional; in a deeper tournament, that just might play. Tirza Two Teeth (235) is a defending state champ; River Cote (100) is unbeaten. Brynn Courville (138) and Katie Dolence (126) were third at state a year ago.

Meanwhile Glacier has Kaura Coles back to defend her individual title, this time at 120.

Flathead rolled to the Western AA title, with 19 girls advancing to state. 

Lucille Libby (235) was the Bravettes’ lone divisional champion, but several of her teammates were runners-up: Bella Downing (120), Kiera Lackey (132), Adi Siegel (114), Mykel Lee (100) Haley Wilson (138) and Bridget Smith (165). Eight more finished in the top four.