Hawk wrestlers go to Choteau

Fresh off a long road trip to Cut Bank, coach Mike Thilmony and his Thompson Falls Blue Hawks will load the bus back up, turn it around and head back north and east this week for the annual Choteau Invitational.

The Hawks suffered through a variety of issues which affected their lineup last week.

First off, the grades came out and several Hawks were determined to be temporarily ineligible. Then the flu bug hit and put a few more Fall grapplers out of action for at least the weekend.

The end result for the Hawks was a rather quiet weekend of action in the Cut Bank Invite. Freshman Elijah Ratliff, who won second place at 132 pounds, was the only Falls wrestler to advance to the championship round in Cut Bank as the Hawks scored 47 team points in the two-day tourney. Ratliff lost by 11-0 decision to Whitehall's Mike Wilkinson in the Cut Bank championship final.

Still recovering from a knee injury, junior Roman Sparks advanced to the semifinals at 126 pounds before settling for sixth place, forfeiting the fifth-sixth place match to rest the injury.

Junior Lucas Andersen ran into a very tough draw at 152 pounds, but also wrestled well in Cut Bank, Thilmony said.

Coming down with the flu just in time to miss the Cut Bank tournament were Hawk standouts Trae Thilmony (at 120 pounds) and Shane Reishus (138).

Class A teams Havre (211 points) and Lewistown (196.5) finished first and second in team scoring, and Whitehall took third with 146.5. Western B-C power Mission-Charlo (135), Clark Fork (130) and Eureka (121) finished fourth through sixth in the 29-team meet.

"We had a lot of kids who, for one reason or another couldn't go last week," Thilmony said. "Hopefully we will get a few things cleaned up and be back at full strength this week."

Thilmony looks forward to this weekend's Choteau Invite for a couple of reasons. First off, there are always a lot of good wrestlers in it, and secondly, there are even more good wrestlers scheduled to be in it this year.

"Most of the Class B-C teams in the state will be there, including Eureka and Glasgow who haven't gone to it in the past," he said. "Clark Fork from the west won't be there, and a couple eastern teams also will not make it but, overall, this is looking like a very tough field of teams this year.

"It should be a great test," he added. "This is the time of year that we need to kick it up a level and the Choteau tourney would be a great place to do that."