Blue Hawks champs in Superior tournament

by John Hamilton

That championship look.

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawk wrestling team not only has that championship look this season, they already have a team championship firmly in their hands after grappling their way to the team title in the Bob Kinney Classic in Superior Saturday.

Led by champions Kaleb Frank, Jase Sorenson and Austin Cooper, who grappled down individual titles at 120, 170 and 205 pounds, and top-four placing efforts from eight other Falls wrestlers, the Hawks scored 184.5 team points to easily win the Kinney team crown.

Former Western B-C rival Libby, now in Class A, was a distant second with 156.5 points, Corvallis, another A school, was third with 120 and Florence fourth with 113.5 in the 12-team meet.

Sam Ostwald and Seth Alarcon wrestled down second place finishes at 160 pounds and heavyweight, Roman Sparks (113), Cody Garrison (152) and Dakota Irvine (182) earned third place medals and Garrett Jones (113), Nathan Ostwald (126) and Luke Fuhrman (170) won fourth place to aid the Hawks' winning team effort.

Lucas Anderson (132), Dane Chojnachy (152), Alex Veira (160) and Travis Cork (170) also grappled and scored important points for Thompson Falls in the Kinney Classic.

Unable to travel with the team to the meet as he was in Pennsylvania attending his grandmother's funeral, coach Ian Taylor said he was receiving text messages and phone calls from his Hawk assistant coaches and wrestlers all day Saturday keeping him up on what was going down in Superior. He said his grandma, Augusta "Tut" Taylor, would have been proud of his boys that day.

"She never missed a match of mine since I was like 5 years old," Taylor said, "and she has followed us from afar since I have been here in Montana. She would have really liked what we did in Superior, I know that."

Taylor said assistant coaches Ryan Ostwald and Bob Thornhill were in charge of guiding the Hawks in Plains Thursday and again in Superior last week.

Frank pinned his way to the championship at 120, sticking Jimmy Schmitt of Corvallis in only 27 seconds, taking down Kamei Nickerson of the Glacier JV in just 17 seconds and finally, pinning Xander Spady of Libby in 3:42 of the title bout.

Sorenson also registered three pin wins on the way to his 170 championship, pinning Dax Miller of Florence in 4:50, getting the best of teammate Fuhrman in 1:44 of the semifinals and pinning Gus Bosley of Mission-Charlo in 4:43 of the finals. Bosley won second place in the State B-C meet at 182 pounds last winter.

"Jase has now beaten three second place kids from last year's State meets," Taylor said of Sorenson, who won second himself in the State B-C at 170 last year. "Two of them from Class A and now Bosley. He is really looking good."

Cooper grabbed his Kinney crown by pinning Libby's Gabe Van Orden in 2:43 of the semis and Cut Bank's Dylan Sullivan in 1:46 of the championship final at 205.

And those championship efforts were just part of the story for the Hawks Saturday as Thompson Falls ended up putting a total of 11 grapplers on the victory stand before the day was through.

Sam Ostwald and Garrison wrestled very well in earning their medals at 160 and 152. Ostwald won his first two matches by pin and then scored a crucial 6-3 decision win over Luke Lile of Plains-Hot Springs in the semifinals to land in the championship match, where he fell to Cut Bank's JR Seewald.

Garrison won third at 152 after losing a tough 9-7 decision to Drew Schmitt of Corvallis in the championship semis, racking up two of his three pin wins of the day after that to secure his medal.

Alarcon won twice by pin before falling to Ashton Thompson of the Glacier JV in the heavyweight championship.

Irvine won three matches by pin, including the consolation final against Daniel Farias Ambritz of Libby to bring home his third place medal.

Sparks picked up three pin wins and a decision on his way to third place at 113, and Jones also won three matches by pin before falling to Sparks in the conso final.

Nathan Ostwald won three matches after falling in the quarterfinals to win his fourth place medal at 126, and Fuhrman won by pin in the conso semis to clinch his placing spot at 170.

Expecting to be back from PA by late Monday, Taylor said he, and his wrestlers, are looking forward to competing in the CMR Christmas meet in Great Falls Friday and Saturday. The CMR meet is one of the most widely attended meets, by Class AA, A and B-C schools, during any wrestling season in Montana.

"We are hoping to show well at this meet," he said. "This is one of the showcase events in Montana and we are thinking we could make a little noise at it this year. It should be fun."