Frank wins State B-C crown, Hawks 6th in Billings

It was a good, good year for Thompson Falls High School wrestling. In fact, one of the very best ever.

Crowning Thompson Falls' first State B-C individual champ since 2012 in Kaleb Frank, fellow Falls seniors Jase Sorenson (third), and Peyton Irvine and Austin Cooper (both fourth) also earned State medals, as the six-strong Blue Hawks won sixth place in team scoring at the State B-C meet at Metra Park in Billings last week.

What's more, Garrett Jones and Dakota Irvine also scored important points before being eliminated Saturday morning in what coaches call the "Blood Round," which represents the last chance for wrestlers to get into the medal round later Saturday.

The Hawks might have finished even higher in team standings had freshman Roman Sparks, the Western B-C divisional champion at 103 pounds, been able to wrestle. Fearing medical consequences, Sparks was held out of the tournament due to a possible concussion suffered in practice last week.

"It was a good year all around," coach Ian Taylor said. "Sixth at State, first at the Kato and the Superior tournament, second in the Choteau, and a good team showing in the Polson tournament. And, to top it off, Kaleb wins a State title and we have a strong team showing in Billings.

"We are feeling pretty good about things, it was a pretty nice trip coming back home this time, I will tell you that," he added. "This should be a good launching pad for next year's team. The kids can see what being successful at this level is like and, If we keep working hard at it, there is no reason that we could not do it again next year."

By the numbers, here is how it went down for the Hawks in Billings: Frank won the State B-C title at 120 pounds, Sorenson reached the semifinals at 170 before settling for third place, Peyton Irvine and Austin Cooper also advanced to the semifinals and eventually wrestled their ways to fourth place medals at 152 and 205, and Jones and Dakota Irvine both survived into Saturday, also scoring important teams points, before being eliminated at 113 and 205.

Although the four Hawks earning medals are seniors, Jones, a junior, and Dakota Irvine, a sophomore, should return next year to help lead the 2018-2019 Blue Hawks.

The Hawks ended up scoring 88.5 team points

Please turn to page 16

and were the second-highest finishing Western B-C team among the 39 B-C teams represented in Billings. Powerful Colstrip won the State B-C crown with 196 points, Western B-C champion Eureka was second with 127.5 and Glasgow third with 120.

Frank won his State B-C gold medal the old-fashioned way; he earned it.

He started his championship run with a pin of Fairfield's Jack Knight in only 34 seconds in the first round and then ran into Colten Fast of Glasgow, one of the other pre-tourney favorites, in the quarterfinals.

"We knew Fast was the real deal, that the winner of this match had a good chance to win it all," Taylor said. "Kaleb understood the gravity of the situation and did what he had to do, he wrestled very well."

Frank out-pointed Fast 9-7 to earn a spot in Saturday morning's semifinal round, and left the mat after that match with respect for his Glasgow foe. "That was a super tough match," Frank said. "It definitely felt more like a semifinal level match than a quarterfinal."

In the actual semifinal match, Frank ended up facing Sanders County rival Conrad Vanderwall, and pinned Vanderwall in the second period to land his spot in the 120 championship.

Standing across the mat from Frank in that final was none other than Nathan Schmidt of Eureka, who had won a narrow decision from Frank in the Western B-C final only a week earlier. Frank had a game plan in mind against Schmidt this time.

"I had studied the match from divisionals pretty hard," he said. "I noticed he didn't like to tie up and we worked on just wrestling my match and not letting him wrestle his style."

Frank's game plan worked as he made an early takedown's two points stand up the rest of the way in a tense 2-1 championship match win.

Sorenson, who had won second place in the State B-C at 170 as a sophomore, ran into an undefeated Dakoda Siegel of Colstrip in the semis. Sorenson battled Siegel hard but the Colstrip grappler eventually won by pin in the third period. Although disappointed, Sorenson was classy in his assessment of Siegel, who ended the season with an amazing 45-0 record.

"He's one of those guys that is really on a different level than most," Sorenson said, "he is really fast and very technical. And I didn't really wrestle as well as I wanted. I wasn't nearly as offensive as I should have been, and it cost me."

Sorenson won a 7-2 decision from Garrett Smith of Huntley Project in the first round and won by technical fall (17-1) over Brett Hale of Jefferson-Boulder in the quarterfinals. After falling by pin to Siegel in the semis (in 5:11), Sorenson came back to claim third with pins, sticking Valier's Dylan Monroe in 4:05 of the conso semis, and then flattening Sonny Cochran of Shepherd in 1:55 of the conso finals.

Peyton Irvine enjoyed a fantastic ending to a sometimes difficult season in Billings. Nursing an arm injury through most of the campaign, Irvine almost hung it up several weeks ago before coming back in a big way these past few weeks.

"Peyton had to deal with some injuries this year but committed himself to it and made it back," Taylor said. "We are really happy for him, glad to see him pull off some great stuff these past few weeks."

The Western B-C champion a week earlier at 152, Peyton won his first two matches with third period pins to reach the semifinals, where he lost by pin to Colstrip's Ty Bradley. Peyton came back to defeat Eureka's James Fehr by a 3-0 decision in the conso semifinals, and settled for fourth place after losing to Kameron Rauser of Townsend in the consolation finals.

Cooper holds a special place in Taylor's heart after his fourth place State B-C run.

"I can't say enough about Austin and the hard work he put in to get to this point," Taylor said. "He didn't even start wrestling until eighth grade and he was able to realize his potential this year. His medal is a good reward for his effort, he really earned it. We really enjoyed seeing his growth in the sport."

Taylor also praised Dakota Irvine and Jones for their solid efforts.

"Dakota wrestled at 182 most of the year but we moved him up to 205 for divisionals and he really did well there," Taylor offered. "And I think he easily could have won his semifinal match and ended up in the championship."

Dakota won his first round and quarterfinal matches by pin before losing a tough 9-7 decision to Jefferson-Boulder's Dakota Dorn in the semis, and then falling to Manhattan-Whitehall's Luke Lawless by 6-3 decision in the conso semifinals.

Jones rebounded from a first round loss with two pin wins in the wrestleback rounds before finally being eliminated. Taylor was impressed with his feisty 113-pounder.

"Garrett wrestled his rear end off in Billings, he just happened to run into a couple of tough guys," Taylor said. "This should feed his fire for next year."