Hawks celebrate seniors

 

February 2, 2023

Ryan Grimm

Veronica Bewick

Wrestlers, family and community members gathered last Thursday evening in Thompson Falls to honor senior athletes while taking in an evening of high-spirited wrestling. The seniors honored were Westin Brown, Veronica Bewick and Elijah Ratliff. Brown said that after high school he plans to go to work for the rest of his days, "hopefully something to do with a combination of good pay and running equipment."

"After high school, I plan to go to the Army and become a nurse," shared Bewick. Ratliff said that his future plans include going to Montana Tech to play football and pursue a degree.

With only Mission-Charlo making the trek to compete, it was a short but intense three matches. Noa Stevens wrestled first, pinning Donivan Daniels. Ratliff won his match, pinning Chance Bockman. Max Hannum lost 8-6 to Canyon Sargent. Wrestling fans roared from the dark stands to rally these two in a thrilling three periods. "The match with Hannum and Sargent is always a close match and these two will battle it out over the next two weeks," said Coach Michael Thilmony.

Thompson Falls traveled to Whitefish on Friday to face Libby, Columbia Falls and Browning on the mats. In the first round Libby scored 54 and Thompson Falls 15. In round two Columbia Falls beat Thompson Falls 57-9. In the third round of duels the Blue Hawks prevailed over Browning 36-33.

Ryan Grimm

Noa Stevens

Ratliff lost a close 10-5 match to Justin Windauer from Columbia Falls at Whitefish. "Windauer is a defending state champ and a match we were hoping to get to do that day. I thought Eli wrestled well and it was a good match to help him get ready for postseason," said Thilmony.

Thilmony said that both Diego Long and Hannum won their matches 3-0 and wrestled well.

The team is gearing up this week for the Western B-C Divisional tournament at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo this Friday and Saturday.

"We feel good about heading into divisionals. This tournament will be a two-day war as our division is very tough and very deep. We feel we are capable of putting a couple of guys in the finals and have some young wrestlers that are capable of qualifying for the state tournament. Our team has worked hard all year long and we will be ready to scrap come Friday morning," Thilmony said.

 

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