BILLINGS — Jace DeShazer’s run for a third state championship started strong with a pair of victories on Saturday, and Columbia Falls’ Traic Fainter joined him in the semifinal round after a good early showing.

Fainter picked up both victories via pin, over Lewistown’s Colt McCord and Miles City’s Will Merkel, setting up a rematch of last year's state semifinal with Lockwood’s Phillip Westrick on Saturday.

“Today went great,” said Fainter. “I started off pretty hot, got some good hand fighting in and got right to my offense.”

DeShazer — a champion at 182 pounds as a sophomore and 205 as a junior — disposed of Lockwood’s Trey Daly in the first round via pin and Havre’s Pierce Caplette via a technical fall in the second round.

DeShazer is the only Libby wrestler to advance to the semifinals, while Fainter joins four other Wildcats. Ronan advanced four wrestlers, Bigfork two, and Browning had one semifinalist.

“Hopefully we can continue to ride on that,” said Columbia Falls coach Jessie Schaeffer on his five. “Right now we are wrestling where we were kind of expected to.”

The Wildcats sat in fifth in the team standings at 69 points; Ronan in fourth with 72.5. Laurel leads Class A at 113, second is Lockwood at 89 and Sidney is third with 83.

In Class B/C Eureka sits in third place with 53 points, trailing Conrad by just a half point. Huntley Project leads the standings with 112.

Timothy Schmidt — the top seed for the West at 120 pounds — is one of three Lions wrestlers who earned a spot in the semifinals.

Plains/Hot Springs’ John Waterbury worked his way into the semifinals at 152 pounds.

In the girls competition Ronan — one of the favorites entering the tournament — is tied for second in the team standings with Miles City at 83.5 points. Defending champion Billings Senior leads the competition going away at 137 points.

Four Maidens wrestled their way into the semifinals, led by top-ranked Tirza Two Teeth at 235 pounds.

Polson’s Harli Kinney also earned a spot in the semifinals at 145.

Full results can be found at trackwrestling.com.