Trae excels in AAU Duals

Trae Thilmony is not only one of the best high school wrestlers in Montana, he is one of the best prep grapplers in the entire country.

Thilmony's body of wrestling work and rewards earned during his outstanding career grew even more impressive in Florida last week.

A two-time State B-C individual champion in Montana, the rising Thompson Falls senior wrestled as a member of the Montana Maroon team in the week-long 2021 AAU Scholastic Duals tournament at the expansive Orange County Convention Center West Concourse in Orlando last week, and went 10-2 in matches at 132 pounds there, being one of the two wrestlers on the team to earn All-American medals for their efforts.

Liam Swanson, the Class AA champ at 182 for Great Falls High last winter, who also went 10-2 in Scholastic Dual matches last week, was the other Montana grappler to earn All-American honors.

Comprised of standout wrestlers from all classes from most every part of the state, the Montana Maroon team was coached by Thompson Falls head coach Mike Thilmony, Trae's father. Montana put up another squad, called the White team, in Florida.

"It was an honor for Trae to be on this team and an honor for me to get the chance to coach a group like we had in Florida," coach Thilmony said. "There was a total of 136 teams from 35 or 36 states. The Maroon team Montana had was the more mature kids and the White team was the younger ones, but they were all state champs or placers in Montana last winter."

Thilmony said the tournament also had divisions for development teams, female wrestlers and even a division for entire high school teams to compete in. The State A championship team from Montana and the place where coach Thilmony grew up and earned his grappling chops in high school, Sidney finished fourth in the Gold Bracket of that division.

He added that although the West Coast states were not all that well-represented in Florida, teams from the Rocky Mountain region, the Midwest and the eastern half of the U.S. were there in force.

Thilmony's team made their way into the Gold Bracket based on rounds of wrestling, and a coin flip after finishing fifth in the preliminaries. The Montana Maroon team eventually finished 16th overall.

Trae Thilmony's only two losses last week came at the hands of Pennsylvania wrestlers. The No. 1 ranked 132-pounder in the nation, Nick Bouzakis caught Thilmony in an early pinning combination and defeated the Blue Hawk star in the first period.

In his other loss in Orlando, Thilmony fell only 4-3 to another Pennsylvania opponent, in a match that both Thilmonys thought they had a chance to win in retrospect.

"That Pennsylvania team was something else, they were flattening everyone else in convincing fashion," Mike said. "And we may have lost to Bouzakis but it was good to get a match with him, he is a very high level kid."

Also an all-state football player for the Hawks, Trae can stop dieting quite as much now as he attempts to get up to his gridiron fighting weight for the upcoming season in that sport. Coach Thilmony said that figure was about 150 pounds last fall. As for Florida, his dad thinks Trae did very well in that tournament of champions.

"Trae had a great tournament, and I enjoyed coaching it," he said. "It was a chance to get better and I think we did improve, the level of competition was just so high."

We are glad we did it, it was fun."