Grappling towards greatness

Thilmony’s summer intensive takes him to Florida

 


Trae Thilmony wants to be the very best wrestler that he can be.

Proving his dedication to the sport is limitless, the rising Thompson Falls sophomore has spent most of the last month in a summer intensive wrestling program which wound up at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at 700 South Victory Way in Orlando, Florida for the 2019 National Scholastic Duals June 19-24.

The Western B-C champion and State B-C third-place medal winner at 113 pounds last winter for the Blue Hawks, Trae began his trip to Florida back in early June, according to his father Mike Thilmony, who is currently the assistant high school coach at Thompson Falls. Trae also wrestled at 113 in Orlando last week.

“Kaleb Frank (the 2018 State B-C champ at 120 pounds from Thompson Falls) went on this same trip two years ago,” Mike said, “and it really helped him grow as a wrestler. It’s a month-long commitment that began for Trae in Sidney, continued in Minnesota and ended up in Florida.

“We are already thinking a little bit about next year, and maybe trying to get some more local kids involved,” he added.

Trae, after raising money for his trip by selling raffle tickets door-to-door in Thompson Falls this spring, went to Sidney on June 8 to join other Montana wrestlers for a week-plus of training before busing to Minneapolis and training for several more days at the University of Minnesota’s new state-of-the-art wrestling training center.

From Minneapolis, the Montana all-stars (Sidney put together two teams of its own and Montana two others) then flew to Orlando for one of the biggest wrestling shows of any season.

Mike told the Ledger that the four state placers from each high school classification in any state are automatically invited to be on teams, and that about 50 Montana kids participated this year. The starting lineups for the squads are decided by wrestle-offs in Florida before the actual duals begin.

Although the results posted on the Track Wrestling website concerning the event are at least partially incorrect, they can be viewed there. Mike said that Trae went 6-3 in official dual match action, and 8-4 overall in Florida over the past week.

Mike said one other wrestler from this area, Darwin Adams, who competes for Mission-Charlo, was on the Montana team Trae was on in Florida.

 

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