So that's what the rest of the Western B-C wrestling division, and Thompson Falls in particular, is up against.

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks finally got an opportunity to see and put their hands on the Eureka Lions in a wrestling match last week, facing off with the defending Western B-C and State B champions in the Bulldog Invitational duals tournament in Whitefish Friday.

In Whitefish, the Hawks lost an abbreviated dual with Eureka 52-24, defeated Libby 32-30 and won a 42-24 decision from Whitefish.

It was Western B-C rival Eureka that coach Ian Taylor and his Hawks really wanted to see the most in Whitefish. The Lions and Hawks had not crossed wrestling paths yet this season until finally facing off in the Bulldog duals.

Now that they have renewed mat acquaintances, the face-offs between these two teams and the rest of the Western B-C squads will move to Superior Saturday for the 2017-2018 divisional tournament.

The Lions were No. 1 in the latest Class B power poll, Colstrip was ranked second, Huntley Project third, Glasgow fourth, Malta fifth and Thompson Falls sixth. Also from the Western B-C division, Plains-Hot Springs checked in at No. 9 and Florence-Carlton at No. 10.

Taylor thinks those rankings don't do his Hawks justice. "I feel we should be ranked higher than that," he said, "but these next few weeks will tell if I am right or not."

The Hawks will go into Superior with five grapplers ranked in the top six of their B-C weight classes in Montana. Kaleb Frank is ranked No. 1 at 120 pounds, Jase Sorenson is No. 2 at 170, Roman Sparks No. 3 at 103, Dakota Irvine No. 4 at 182 and Austin Cooper No. 4 at 205.

Senior Cody Garrison would likely have been ranked among the best at 152 pounds, but suffered a season-ending injury a few weeks ago.

Taylor thinks his Blue Hawks might just have what it takes to challenge Eureka for the Western B-C title. "Obviously, losing Cody at this point of the season hurts," he said. "But we don't have any tricks up our sleeve. We will go out there, wrestle hard, and see where that takes us."

In addition to the wrestlers already listed, Garrett Jones will wrestle at 113 pounds this week, Nathan Ostwald will compete either at 120 or 126, Lucas Anderson at 132, Dane Chojnacky at 145, Peyton Irvine at 152, Sam Ostwald at 160 and Seth Alarcon at heavyweight.

Recently returning from an arm injury of his own, Peyton Irvine has been capably wrestling at 152 in Garrison's stead for the past several weeks, and has given the Hawk lineup a boost at that weight.

With neither team at full strength and with both sitting out a few grapplers with injuries or other issues, the Hawks and Eureka finally had their long-awaited first meeting of the season in Whitefish.

The highlight of the dual was Sorenson moving up to 182 pounds to take on Eureka's Garrett Graves, the defending State B-C champ at that weight. Sorenson won second place at 170 in the State B-C last winter. "Jase has not been tested much this season," Taylor said, "and we wanted to get him a tough match before we go to Billings.

Sorenson, who was undefeated this season at 170 going in, wrestled Graves very well but got caught late and was pinned in the closing seconds of regulation.

In other matches with Eureka, Jones (113), Nathan Ostwald (120) and Anderson (132) lost, but Peyton Irvine pinned Eureka's Nat Cargill in 1:52 of the 152 match. Cooper also moved up a weight class to get a tough match and was pinned by Eureka's Sam Johnson in 3:32 at heavyweight.

In the Hawks' dual win over Libby, Peyton Irvine won again, this time by an 8-3 decision, and Sorenson won by technical fall over Logger Tanner Wood.

Against Whitefish, Sparks won by pin in 33 seconds at 103 pounds, Peyton Irvine flattened his opponent in 2:33 at 152, and Sam Ostwald stuck his Bulldog opponent in 1:17 at 160.

Taylor said his Hawks have the usual assortment of bumps and bruises which would be expected at this time of a wrestling season, but are generally healthy.

John Hamilton

WINNING WITH ANOTHER PIN - Falls senior Kaleb Frank won his final match ever as a Blue Hawk in Thompson Falls by pin Thursday.

"We are about as healthy as you could expect at the end of a long, hard season," he said. "The truth is, if you are not at least a little beat up at this point, you are probably not going hard enough anyway."