SUPERIOR – It is time for all Montana prep wrestlers to make their final stands. And each and every one of those grapplers dreams of being the last man standing at his weight, having his hand raised in triumph after their final match and being declared a Montana state champion.

Team and individual champions will be crowned at the Montana All-Class wrestling tournament at Metra Park in Billings Saturday, and coach Ian Taylor and his Blue Hawks hope to be in the Class B-C winners' circle when all the grappling is done.

"This is what we work for all year, why we are here," Taylor said. "We are happy with how we wrestled in Superior Saturday and look forward to going over to Billings and seeing how we do there."

Thompson Falls placed seven wrestlers in the top four and scored 144 points in the Western B-C divisional tournament in Superior Saturday, finishing second in team scoring to defending Western B-C and State B-C team champion Eureka, which scored 209, but ahead of Florence (135) and Mission-Charlo (134).

Seniors Jase Sorenson (at 170 pounds) and Peyton Irvine (152), sophomore Dakota Irvine (205) and freshman Roman Sparks (103) won individual Western B-C titles, seniors Kaleb Frank (120) and Austin Cooper (205) finished second, and junior Garrett Jones (113) took third.

Also wrestling in Superior but not moving on to Billings, brothers Nathan Ostwald placed fifth at 126 pounds and Sam Ostwald sixth at 160, and Dane Chojnacky (152) and Lucas Anderson (132) competed well in their weight classes.

Rated No. 2 at 170 in the most recent Class B-C power poll, Sorenson muscled his way to his individual divisional title, pinning Mission-Charlo's Miles Anderson in 1:41 of the semifinals, and then sticking Clark Fork's Trey Green in 2:56 of the championship final, improving his season record to 26-1 in the process.

Looking ahead to Billings, Sorenson has been ranked behind Colstrip's Nakoda Siegel most of the season, but has a chance to reverse that ranking in Billings. "Jase is certainly capable of winning a state title," Taylor said, "and he has his eye on the prize. If he wrestles well, he has as good a shot as anyone."

Sorenson's only loss this season came two weeks ago to Eureka's Garrett Graves, the No. 1 rated and defending State B-C champion at 182 pounds, and Sorenson accorded himself well, in spite of giving up more than 10 pounds in that match.

Peyton Irvine, who suffered a nagging arm injury all season, raised his game to win the 152 pound championship, pinning Eureka's Nathan Cargill in 1:21 of the semifinals and then winning a 5-1 decision from Cargill's teammate James Fehr in the chipper. Irvine improved his season record to 12-2 with the championship run.

Peyton's younger brother Dakota Irvine, moved up from 182 pounds to join the fight for the title at 205. After pinning Mission-Charlo's Lucas Wohltmann in 4:56 of the semis, Dakota kept the pressure on teammate Austin Cooper throughout the match in the championship, winning a 7-0 decision from his teammate.

Dakota improved his season record to 13-6 with the win while Cooper fell to 19-7 with the loss.

At 103 pounds, Sparks pinned Arlee's Jace Samsel in just 57 seconds for the championship. Sparks was ranked No. 3 among B-C wrestlers at his weight in the most recent power poll. Sparks improved to 24-8 with the win.

Ranked No. 1 at 126 in that recent poll, Frank pinned Conrad Vanderwall in 1:25 of the semifinals before falling to Eureka's Nathan Schmidt in the championship. Schmidt was ranked No. 2 going into that match.

Jones got his third place medal by winning two matches by pin after losing by decision in the first round. Jones pinned Peter Carey in 1:28 of the consolation final.

Taylor thinks all his wrestlers have the chance to do well in Billings, maybe even win a State B-C team trophy if all goes according to plan.

"We can't be happy just getting there, we need to perform," he said. "Thompson Falls has not had a homegrown champion since 2000 and we want to fix that this week."

John Hamilton

CHAMPIONSHIP FACEOFF - Hawk freshman Roman Sparks faces off with Arlee's Jace Samsel in the Western B-C 103 pound championship match. Sparks won the match by pin.

Jay Deal was the last 'homegrown' State champion from Thompson Falls, winning the title at 189 pounds in 2000. Ben Conover, a transfer student from New Jersey won a State B-C title for Thompson Falls several years ago, and is technically the last Blue Hawk grappler to win an individual championship.