Hawks host first home mixer

The Blue Hawks hosted what was almost a mini-tournament last Thursday, welcoming five schools for a mixer at Thompson Falls High School. Florence, Bigfork, Mission, Arlee and Eureka traveled to Thompson Falls to compete. While no team scores were kept, Hawk Coach Mike Thilmony said it was good to see competition from throughout the division.

The Hawks have five wrestlers on the girls' team this year. Jaden Bewick got a win Thursday against Kayden Dillard of Arlee. Desanie Bewick, Veronica Vega and Alyana Hockhalter had tough matches and though they didn't get wins at home, they got to see some of the competitors they will meet throughout the season.

One of the highlights of the evening was Chris Schwab's win by decision over Ryley Sheppard of Florence. Schwab and Sheppard had an intense battle that the Hawk would win. Schwab lost his other match against Michael McCarty of Bigfork.

Winning both of their matches on Thursday were Blue Hawks Weston Block at 103 pounds, who kicked off his evening with a pin over Hunter Grieve of Eureka. Brock Ryan, Trevor Peterson and Tate Bosker (145) and Noa Stevens (152) also won two each. Max Hannum had one match on Thursday, beating Evan Tidwell of Bigfork at 182 pounds.

"I really like the potential of this team and feel we can be very competitive as we continue to improve," Thilmony said after Thursday's mixer.

Jonah Sorraco had three matches at 138 pounds on Thursday, beating Grady O'Conner of Arlee and losing his two other contests. Hawks Carson Kenney (120), Tuff Ryder (152) and Alex Albano (285) had some tough matches on Thursday but were unable to get a win at home.

"This is a very young team and I am just looking for little improvements each time out," Coach Thilmony said. "I was happy with our performance last night and look to build on that in Superior Saturday. We need to wrestle more mistake-free and finish matches this weekend as we prepare for a big challenge next week at the CMR Christmas Classic." See other story for results from the Superior tournament.