Hawks keep grappling

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks are wrestling lots of matches, learning what they need to work on, and zeroing their focus in on what lies ahead - and that’s just the way coach Mike Thilmony wants it.

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawk wrestlers had another busy dual match week, competing with Arlee and Whitefish in Thompson Falls Friday and then doing more body battles with Mission and Eureka in Eureka Saturday.

For the record, the Hawks defeated Arlee 33-21 and lost to Whitefish 42-24 Friday, before out-pointing Mission 28-18 and losing to Eureka 42-27 Saturday.

Keeping the pedal to the metal this week, the Hawks will travel to Mission Saturday for dual matches with Bigfork and Florence (at 10 and 11 a.m., respectively), and will got to Bigfork Tuesday for action against the hometown Vikings and the Darby Tigers.

Thilmony likes what he is seeing from his hungry Hawk wrestlers.

“We are winning the matches we should be winning,” he said, “and learning from the ones we lose. Our big deal now is to focus on matches with Western B-C divisional opponents.

“We want every kid to be in the best possible position for seeding into the divisional tournament.”

Going without team leader and defending State B-C champion Trae Thilmony last week due to illness, coach Thilmony said he expects his son to return to action this week. Trae was bed-ridden for several days with an illness; fortunately he tested negative for COVID-19.

“He’s feeling better, and is working out again,” coach Thilmony said.

Elijah Ratliff pinned Arlee’s Colt Crawford at 145 pounds and Max Hannum won an 8-2 decision from the Warriors’ RJ Knoll at 160 to highlight Blue Hawk efforts against Arlee.

Against Whitefish, Ratliff, Shane Reishus (152) and Dane Chojnacky (182) all won by pin. Westin Brown, Walker Morefield and Josh Baldwin all lost tough matches to the Class A Bulldogs.

Back on the mats against Mission in Eureka Saturday, Brown pinned Isaiah Fields for a big seeding win at 126 pounds, Ratliff pinned Charlie Adams at 145, Reishus scored a huge 9-1 win over Canyon Sargent at 152, and Chojnacky pinned Diego Hostettler at 182.

The Hawks gave up 18 points in forfeits to Eureka, but went 3-2 in matches actually wrestled with the Lions as Ratliff and Reishus pinned their opponents and Chojnacky won an important 6-0 decision from Colin Johnson at 182.

Coach Thilmony is excited about the rest of the season. “We wrestled great last week, I am very happy with our effort,” he said. “Now it’s just a matter of keeping after it and keeping our eyes on the end goal. We want to be at our best at the best possible time.”