Thilmony, Hannum keep on wrestling during the off-season

To be the best, you need to test yourself against the best. And the more tests, the better.

Considered one of the best high school wrestlers in Montana – with two State B-C titles and a third place medal already locked into his personal trophy case – Trae Thilmony will go to great lengths to make sure he is receiving the best competition possible, even now, in the high school off-season.

A junior at Thompson Falls High School, Thilmony has kept quite busy these past several weeks, working in wrestling practices with high school track and field practices and meets when possible, and attending tournaments during his free times. Those “free times” will be taken up by more wrestling in the coming weeks.

Three weeks ago in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Thilmony wrestled four times and fell one round away from earning a medal in the Folkstyle Nationals (sponsored by USA Wrestling). Thilmony pinned his first two opponents (one from Kansas and the other from Florida) to reach the 132 pound quarterfinals, but lost by decision to eventual champion Grayson Clark of Wisconsin in that match.

In the match to get in for a medal, Thilmony then fell to a standout grappler from Nebraska.

Two weeks ago in St. Ignatius, Thilmony won best of class at 132 pounds in a benefit grappling tournament set up for former Mission Bulldog wrestler Isaiah Allik. Now a student at Montana Tech in Butte, Allik was diagnosed with a form of soft-tissue cancer and is trying to work his way back and reclaim his spot on the Oredigger football team.

Thilmony now sets his sights on the High School Nationals, sponsored by the National High School Association this weekend (April 23-25) in Virginia. Thilmony’s father Mike Thilmony said that tournament, unlike some of the others, will be wrestled by grade and weight, so Trae will only wrestle other juniors at 132 in this elite tourney.

Mike said that Trae and Max Hannum (a Blue Hawk freshman who recently wrestled in the national high school duals in Des Moines, Iowa) both want to get better and experience quality competition, and that they want to get their names out there for recruiting purposes.

“They want to face the best competition out there and events like these in the off-season are how you do that,” Mike offered. “It’s a recruiting thing too, we want to get our names out there and this is a good way to get known nationally in the sport.”