Blue-collar Hawk wrestlers pack action in

The Thompson Falls-Noxon Blue Hawks are blue-collar, hard-working wrestlers; they pack their lunch pails every day and faithfully go to work anytime and anywhere there is grappling to be done.

Putting in the hard work again last week, coach Mike Thilmony and his Hawks wrestled at three different venues, facing off with Anaconda and Frenchtown in Frenchtown January 12, mixing it up with Arlee and Plains-Hot Springs in Arlee Friday and finally getting after it with Malta and Fairfield in Cut Bank Saturday.

Scoring the dual matches, the Hawks defeated Anaconda 48-18, lost to Frenchtown 66-9, out-pointed Malta 35-22 and lost 39-24 to Fairfield.

Although all the usual regular season tournaments have been lost in this COVID-19 season, Thilmony and the Hawks are working hard to make sure they are ready for a State B-C tournament if that does come to pass by wrestling at every opportunity.

The Hawks have missed the tourney action but the numerous dual matches Thilmony has managed to arrange have softened that blow.

“We want to be facing the toughest competition out there, to get the best opponents possible for our kids,” he said. “And since we are about halfway through the season now, we want to start focusing on getting everybody to their desired weight, and work on reaching our peak by the post-season.”

Working toward that goal, the Hawks will host Whitefish and Arlee Friday, will visit Eureka for a triangular with the host Lions and Libby Saturday, and will host a triangular with Florence and Plains-Hot Springs next Tuesday.

Breaking the action down from last week, the Anaconda dual was one of the Hawks’ team highlights. Westin Brown (126 pounds), Trae Thilmony (132), Walker Morefield (138), Elijah Ratliff (145), Shane Reishus (152) and Dane Chojnacky (182) all won their matches against the mat Copperheads by pin.

The pin by Morefield, a freshman, was his first, and earned kudos from coach Thilmony.

Trae Thilmony won by pin and Ratliff by an 8-5 decision in the dual match with Class A powerhouse Frenchtown, the No. 2 ranked team in the state at that classification. “Our kids wrestled well, they battled, but Frenchtown has a very solid lineup,” coach Thilmony said.

In the Arlee mixer, Trae Thilmony, Ratliff, Reishus, Max Hannum (160), Josh Baldwin (170) and Chojnacky all went 2-0 in individual matches, while Morefield and Brown both wrestled well but lost twice.

Against Malta in Cut Bank, Trae Thilmony won a 15-0 technical fall decision over Cameron Miksel, who was a state placer at 113 pounds last winter, and Reishus and Chojnacky won by pin. Hannum lost a tough 10-2 decision to Cameron Mares, another State B-C place-winner last year.

Completing their busy week with the dual against Fairfield, coach Thilmony felt that the Hawks could have performed better.

“We feel like we let that dual get away from us a little,” he said. “We feel we should have won that match and look forward to seeing Fairfield again later this season.”

Trae Thilmony and Ratliff won their matches with Fairfield by pin to lead the Hawks in that dual.