Thilmony, Sparks win; Hawks take 5th in Kato

Consider this a dry run for a much bigger deal – the Western B-C Divisional wrestling tournament.

Thompson Falls hosted the annual Ted Kato Invitational at TFHS Saturday, exactly two weeks before the Western B-C meet returns to Thompson Falls on Feb. 3, and at that meet the stakes will be considerably higher, with State B-C berths hanging in the balance.

Down to five active wrestlers, the Hawks won Kato championships at 113 pounds with Trae Thilmony and at 120 with Roman Sparks, and Shane Reishus (126) and Dakota Irvine (182) both took second place.

Wrestling at 145 pounds, Lucas Anderson won a match by pin before being eliminated from medal contention. The Hawks' 160-pounder, Dane Chojancky suffered a broken hand during a match Friday at TFHS and was lost for the season.

Mission-Charlo won the 2019 Kato team crown with 112 points, the Kalispell Flathead JV were second with 107.5, the Missoula Big Sky JV (101) took third, Plains-Hot Springs (98.5) fourth, and the Hawks (92) fifth, with Clark Fork (82), the Missoula Sentinel JV (81), the Kalispell Glacier JV (55), Arlee (48) and Bigfork (25) following.

Although scheduled to attend, the Florence Falcons did not make the trip to Thompson Falls Saturday, and the tournament field was a smaller one for this edition of the Kato tourney.

"We feel pretty good about how we did with just five wrestlers scoring," Blue Hawk coach Ian Taylor said. "And 18 of our points came from nine falls, so we won a lot of matches by pin and that will help us later on at divisional if we can keep doing that."

Claiming his fifth tournament title of the season, Thilmony scored four of those bonus points in the Kato by pinning Colton Wieczorek of the Flathead JV in 44 seconds of the 113 semifinals and then flattening Curtis Wiley of the Glacier JV in 1:00 in the finals. "Trae did what he likes to do," Taylor said, "he dominated."

Sparks also won two matches by quick pins – over Isaiah Fields (:23) in the quarterfinals and Kaleb Rhubottom (:13) in the semis – to get into the 120 championship where he won a tight 4-2 decision from Walker Murphy in the title match. "Roman had a pretty nice tournament," Taylor said, "and that was a big win over Murphy in the final."

Reishus pinned Arlee's RJ Knoll (3:58) and Sean Wyatt of Missoula Sentinel in :55 to land in the championship at 126 pounds, where he was pinned by Flathead Braden Comer in 44 seconds. Comer is a senior and Reishus is young for a freshman, Taylor offered. "Shane is young for his grade, I think he moved up a grade back in grade school," he said. "He wrestled pretty well considering the age and experience difference in that championship match."

Irvine pinned Jonathan Holcomb of Flathead in 1:49 and James Crazyboy of Arlee in 3:27 to gain the finals at 182, where nemesis Trey Green of Clark Fork won by pin in 3:27. Irvine has defeated Green this season but Green improved to 3-1 against him with the latest match win.

"Green is a good, tough kid," Taylor said. "We are going to have to figure out a different way to attack him next time."

Anderson pinned Arlee's Kanoa Palazzolo in 5:28 before falling to Isaiah Kovalsky of Clark Fork and Reece Thompson of Sentinel after that. "We're proud of the way Lucas competed, he never gave up anything in his matches," Taylor said. "He wrestled very well."

The Hawks lost a dual match, which was originally scheduled as a mixer with another team or two participating, to the Flathead JV Friday at TFHS.

Hurtling towards the post season, the Hawks will host a quadrangular Thursday (Florence, Mission-Charlo and Clark Fork are scheduled to join Thompson Falls in that meet), and will travel to Whitefish for the Whitefish Duals Friday.

The Western B-C will then be contested in Thompson Falls the following week on Feb. 3.

"We are excited to have the divisional meet in Thompson Falls," Taylor said, "and this is the time of season where you want to be wrestling your best. We look forward to seeing how we do the rest of the way."