Hawk grapplers ready for Western B-C

Finally, with all the dual matches done and in the books, it's time for some good old-fashioned tournament wrestling.

The new and improved Western B-C divisional tournament, which now includes 25 teams, mostly from the former Western and Northern B-C divisions, will be held in Cut Bank Friday and Saturday. The top eight finishers from each weight class then move on to the State B-C meet in Shelby March 5-6.

Local squads, like the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks are eager to place as many wrestlers as they can among those elite top eights and on to Shelby next week.

"We are excited to be wrestling in a tournament format again," Hawk coach Mike Thilmony said. "And it's like I have always told the kids, divisional tournaments are basically early rounds of the state tournament.

"It is not going to be easy to finish in the top eight in a tournament like this, every match matters," he added, "and we want to be as ready as possible for every match to put ourselves in the best possible position for each kid making it to state."

The Hawks completed the regular season mat campaign last week, hosting a triangular dual with Eureka and Arlee (a late substitute for Clark Fork, which was hit by a COVID-19 situation) Friday and visiting Eureka Saturday for a pair of dual matches Saturday.

The Hawks dropped an exciting dual to Eureka 34-28 but came back to top Arlee 40-6 Friday. Wrestling against reduced lineups due to coaches resting banged-up wrestlers, the Hawks faced off against Ronan and Polson Saturday.

The dual with Eureka came down to one match – the 132 pound encounter between defending State B-C champions Gunnar Smith for the Lions, a three-time state champ, and Trae Thilmony for the Hawks. Adding to the intrigue going in, Smith and Thilmony had only met twice before, with each winning once.

Smith struck first by scoring a takedown about 30 seconds into the match. Wrestling from the up position to begin the second period, Thilmony watched Smith reverse and three-point near-fall him in the closing seconds of that period giving Smith a 7-0 lead.

Forced into desperation mode in the third, Trae wound up losing the match by 10-2 decision.

"Everyone knew the dual was going to be decided by that match, and it was a good one," coach Thilmony said. "But that five-point swing in the second period was a little too much to overcome."

Although Smith won this time, Thilmony thinks 132 pounds at the State B-C level is still anyone's game when it comes to the next few weeks. "We think we can still win this matchup," he said. "It's just a matter of taking him on again and wrestling smarter if it happens to work out that way."

In other matches against Eureka, Elijah Ratliff won by pin at 145 pounds and Dane Chojnacky by major decision at 182. Westin Brown (126) and Walker Morefield (138) lost tough matches by pin.

Against Arlee, Ratliff pinned Colt Crawford after a competitive tussle at 145, and Shane Reishus won by major decision at 160.

In Eureka, the Hawks went 3-3 in matches against Ronan. Thilmony, Ratliff and Chojnacky won by pin, and Brown, Morefield and Owen Fernstrum (152) all fell by pin.

Ratliff's win over Kaleb Scheff, a highly-rated Class A 145-pounder, was the highlight of the dual for the Hawks coach Thilmony said.

Versus Polson, Thilmony and Max Hannum (160) won by pin and Brown and Morefield lost competitive matches.

Coach Thilmony knows things are about to change in Montana prep wrestling. The newly formatted Western B-C tourney is the beginning of that big change.

"This combined divisional promises to be very interesting," he said. "The atmosphere at this tourney will be a lot like that at a state meet. We will have to be ready from the opening whistle."