Thompson Falls Head Coach deems tournament a success
<p>Colton Bray puts his opponent in a hold during the Ted Kato tournament. Milner placed fourth in the 152-pound weight class.</p>
THOMPSON FALLS – The Bluehawk wrestling team had four placers at their home tournament. The Ted Kato Invitational brought in 13 teams in all.
Thompson Falls finished in 10th place with a score of 64 points.
According to Head Coach Ian Taylor, Weston Stover had a good day on the mat. Wrestling at 126 pounds, he competed very well in the semi final match, earning him a spot in the finals.
“We were happy about his effort there,” Coach Taylor said.
Stover stood out the most on the mat.
“It was a tough match. (His opponent) ended up getting pinned with one second to go. It was a close match,” Coach Taylor said.
Along with Stover, three other wrestlers placed. Colton Bray placed third place in the 145-pound division; Joey Milner placed fourth in 152 pounds and Lena Babcock placed fourth in the 98-pound division.
“A couple matches got away from us that I’m sure we’d like to have back but we are going to keep working to get better. I know a couple of guys who didn’t place who really wanted to,” Coach Taylor said.
He hopes the guys will take away something positive from the loss and continue improving.
Overall, the tournament went well with approximately 120 wrestlers in all. The long day on the mats provided the wrestlers with a handful of different matches.
The wrestlers went to Superior on Tuesday. Although no information on the mixer was available at the time of the press, the meet could cause a few challenges. With a meet so early in the week the wrestlers are not able to get many practice days under their belt. Later meets also give the wrestlers more time to get their weight under control.
After the Superior meet, the team heads to Choteau for their biggest tournament of the year.
“It’s almost as big as the state tournament. It should give us a real good idea of where we are at and what we need to do before the post season gets here,” Coach Taylor said.
Approximately 40 teams are invited. The tournament gives the Bluehawks a chance to see teams from the eastern part of the state – a chance that doesn’t come around too often.
It gets to be monotonous these couple weeks in January. All we do is wrestle divisional tournaments – it will help break it up a little bit for us,” Coach Taylor said.