Thilmony title leads Bluehawks at Cut Bank Invitational
Four wrestlers on the Thompson Falls/Noxon high school squad brought home medals from the Cut Bank Booster Invitational last Saturday.
Freshman Trae Thilmony stepped back to the top of the podium by capturing the 113-pound championship.
Roman Sparks earned third place at 120 pounds, while Seth Alarcon was fourth at heavyweight and Dakota Irvine fifth at 182.
“We had seven kids there and we placed four,” Thompson Falls/Noxon head coach Ian Taylor said. “Overall, we were 21-11 (win-loss record for wrestlers). We had 13 wins by fall, and one by technical fall.”
Thilmony breezed through his weight bracket unscathed. “He beat several tough kids,” Taylor said, “a couple of (Class) A kids.
The coach said Sparks had a “very solid day,” posting a 7-1 record. “He’s looking pretty good.”
Alarcon “wrestled a pretty good tournament,” credited Taylor, “but he ran into the No. 1-ranked heavyweight in his class from Browning. “He wrestled a tough match with him. It was a good performance.”
IRVINE LOST at early match at Cut Bank, but earned an overtime victory over a Great Falls opponent to get into the match for fifth and sixth places. “He took the kid down and put him on his back,” Taylor recalled. “It was a nice effort from him.”
At 138 pounds, Bluehawk grappler Lucas Anderson pinned his first draw, then ran into a 2018 state placer from Choteau. His next match was against a Eureka matman who was second at state last year.
Dane Chojnacky, at 160, “wrestled real hard” and posted a 2-2 record at the Cut Bank Invite, Taylor said. “He lost a tough match in the wrestle-backs. He had a match that kind of got away from us that we should have won.”
All-in-all, the Bluehawks are “getting batter every week” collectively, according to Taylor.
Thompson Falls/Noxon was scheduled to take part in a Superior Mixer on Tuesday, Jan. 8. The Bluehawks compete in the Choteau Tournament this Friday and Saturday, a tourney with up to 25 teams and a good representation from Class B/C schools.