Thompson Falls' Thilmony has strong showing at CMR Holiday Classic

Almost 100 teams of boys and girls wrestlers took to the mats this past Saturday for the annual CMR Holiday Classic in Great Falls and one of the biggest surprises was who did not win.

Thompson Falls’ two-time state champion Trae Thilmony, wrestling at 145 pounds, finished second in the weight class as he lost by fall to Missoula Big Sky’s Israel Moreno at the :53 mark.

The loss dropped Thilmony, who was wrestling at a higher weight class than he did while winning two straight state championship at lower weights, to 11-1 on the year.

Despite the loss, Thilmony and two other Thompson Falls wrestlers managed to garner enough points to allow the Blue Hawks to finish 26 in the team standings.

That was second only to wrestling powerhouse Cut Bank’s 16th place among B-C schools in the meet which attracted most of the state’s AA and A schools.

Also grabbing top eight individual finishes were Eli Ratliff, who placed sixth at 152 pounds, and fellow Blue Hawk Shane Reishus, who was eighth in the 160 pound division.

Three schools from Billings took home top team honors, paced by Billings West’s 231.5 points. Second in team honors went to Billings Senior with 209.5 points, while the Senior girls team also had 209.5 points to tie their Broncs boys counterparts.

Thilmony wracked up four wins in advancing to the 145-pound final. Along the way he dispatched of Great Falls Central’s Ethan Jarrett and then stopped Oden Currier of Belgrade.

He won his quarter-final match over Landon Bishop of Ronan, then beat Roper Mycke of Conrad to advance to the championship match.

Ratliff, who lost the match for fifth and sixth place to Dylan Block of the Great Falls Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, had one bye, then lost to Kale Konecky of Billings West.

Reishus rounded out the T Falls scoring total with a pair of early round byes before beating Butte’s Aiden Cuchine and Missoula Big Sky/Loyola’s Charlie Watson. He reached the seventh/eighth place match via a loss to West’s Draka Rhodes.

Ratliff improved his season record to 14-4 with his showing at the meet, while Reishus came away 8-3 on the year.