Hawks 5th in Ronan Duals

As much as Thompson Falls coach Ian Taylor liked last week's Western Montana Duals tournament in Ronan Friday and Saturday, he ended up wishing that the Hawks had not gone to the event in the end.

"I would have rather that we had stayed home had I known Cody would get hurt like that," Taylor said referencing a severe elbow injury that his senior 152-pounder Cody Garrison suffered during the Hawks' dual with Frenchtown Saturday. "It was a good tournament with lots of wrestling, but losing Cody is a real bummer."

Taylor said Garrison suffered a dislocated elbow during a scramble with his Frenchtown opponent, and that it doesn't look good as far as having enough time to recover and rehabilitate the injury before the season ends. A senior and team leader, Garrison had been enjoying a standout season wrestling at 152 pounds for the Hawks at the time of the incident.

Although Garrison's injury cast a pall over the rest of the tournament for the Hawks, Thompson Falls competed well as a team in Ronan, wrestling six duals in all and ending up a respectable fifth place in the final standings.

Class A power Frenchtown won the Western Montana Duals crown, host Ronan was second, Columbia Falls third and Libby fourth. Thompson Falls was the top Class B-C team in the meet at fifth place after defeating rival Mission-Charlo 39-33 Saturday, Mission-Charlo was sixth, Townsend seventh and the Kalispell Flathead JV eighth.

The Hawks opened the meet Friday with a 48-27 win over Plains-Hot Springs before falling to the Libby Greenchain 36-29 and defeating Florence 51-19 later that day. Back on the mats Saturday, the Hawks lost to Frenchtown 55-9 and defeated Townsend 45-30 before facing off with Mission-Charlo in the match for fifth and sixth place.

Garrett Jones (113 pounds), Kaleb Frank (120), Garrison (152) and Seth Alarcon (285) all won by pin against Plains-Hot Springs, while Lucas Anderson (132) and Jase Sorenson (182) scored pin wins and Frank and Garrison won by decision against Libby.

Roman Sparks (103), Nathan Ostwald (120), Garrison, Alex Viera (170) and Alarcon won by fall against Florence, and Sorenson was victorious by decision at 182.

Wrestling at his normal weight of 170 Saturday, Sorenson scored a pin win against Frenchtown and Austin Cooper (205) won by decision.

Against Townsend, Jones, Frank, Sam Ostwald (160), Sorenson and Cooper all won by pin and Sparks claimed a decision win at 103.

Finishing up the meet with Mission-Charlo, Jones, Sorenson and Cooper pinned their opponents in that dual and Sam Ostwald scored a decision win at 160.

Only a week and a half away from the annual Ted Kato Invitational in Thompson Falls Jan. 20, the Hawks will travel to Choteau this weekend for one of the biggest B-C meets of any regular season, the Choteau Invitational.

"We always look forward to the Choteau meet," Taylor said. "It should be a good tournament and a good way for us to check out some of the wrestlers from other parts of the state."

The Hawk were to have participated in a mixer match, along with Superior, Mission-Charlo and Bigfork in Superior Tuesday but results of that meet were not available at press time.