Hawks, Savage-Horsemen battle in Superior

Superior High School was a busy place on Saturday with hundreds of people filling the bleachers and nearly 150 wrestlers competing in the Bob Kinney Classic Tournament all day.

The Florence Falcons and its 18 wrestlers nabbed first place with 180 points, followed by the Libby Loggers at 165 points and the Superior Bobcats and its eight wrestlers in third with 121 points. The tournament is named after Superior's first wrestling coach, Bob Kinney. His son, Scott, recently retired as the school's superintendent.

The Plains-Hot Springs Savage Horsemen had a dozen wrestlers at the tournament and chalked up 117 points for fourth place. The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks finished in seventh place with 76 points. Blue Hawk Max Hannum went undefeated in the 182-pound weight class, claiming four victories and first place. The senior from Trout Creek is 8-0 for the season, said Hawks head coach Mike Thilmony, who added that he has a career record of 97 wins and 26 losses. He placed fourth in state in 2021 and was a state champion last season.

"Overall, I felt we wrestled well in Superior. We won a lot of matches, but only placed three wrestlers in the top four," said Thilmony. Beside Hannum, Weston Block, competing in the 103-pound weight class, finished in second place. In fourth place in the 126-pound weight class was Diego Long.

"We are a young team that is making a lot of mistakes and not finishing matches. We feel we have a lot of work to do to get where we want to be as a team," said Thilmony. He noted that the CMR Christmas Classic in Great Falls on Friday and Saturday will be the toughest event on their schedule.

Fourteen teams took part in the Saturday tournament with teams from four wrestlers - Darby and Deer Lodge, which took 12th and 14th place - to the 24 from Corvallis, which placed fifth with 116 points.

The tournament ran from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., said Charlie Crabb, the chief coordinator for the event and head coach for the Bobcats, who had five wrestlers in the finals with three wins - Micah Ackerman, Jaxson Green, and Turner Milender, who won the quick pin in the tournament by defeating Caden Gardner of Corvallis in 19 seconds.

"It was an honor to see John Waterbury not only win his weight class but also receive the Top Wrestler Award for the tournament," said Jesse Jermyn, head coach for Plains-Hot Springs. Waterbury, one of four Hot Springs members on the team, finished the champion in the 152-pound weight class, beating Lucas Kovalsky of Superior in an 8-3 decision. The Savage Horsemen chalked up 10 pins for the day.

Savage Horseman Gavin Schrenk placed second in the 126-pound weight class, defeating Jon Post of the Florence Falcons in a 16-9 decision. Third place in the 113-pound weight class went to Savage Horseman Matthew Thurston. Drew Carey of the Plains-Hot Springs team finished in third place in the 145-pound class after first beating Braden Carter of Florence in a 55-second pin and then Brock Ryan of Thompson Falls 7-5.

Hot Springs grappler David Chapman took third place in the 170-pound weight class after defeating Bigfork's Wyatt Elwell. Competing in the 182-pound weight class, Brenden Vanderwall of Plains finished in third place after whipping Joey Wheeler of Stevensville in a 42-second pin. Hannum defeated Vanderwall in a 1:27 pin.

"We are happy with a fourth place finish. A lot of our kids are still wrestling a weight class up, focusing on healthy weight loss," said Jermyn, who complimented Superior for putting on a great tournament. "Later in the year, once we get everybody to their fighting weight, we should be in a good spot," said Jermyn. The coach said that his wrestlers have a list of techniques to review, but that the list is getting smaller.

"Our veteran wrestlers performed well this weekend. Most of the rust seems to be coming off. Our less experienced wrestlers are showing great potential and just need to continue getting time on the mat," said Jermyn, who's looking forward to the Eureka Mixer on Friday and the Buzz Lucy Tournament in Eureka on Saturday. "It'll be our first overnight trip and we should see some class B competition we haven't seen this year," he said.

The Thompson Falls girl grapplers competed at the Flathead Invite at Polson Saturday, but didn't win any of their matches, said Thilmony, although he added that they got in some quality matches and a good effort out of the girls team. "The girls got the opportunity to see competition from across the state that they will compete against at the state tournament. It was a great event for our girls team," he said.