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This weekend is the 28th annual Ted Kato Memorial wrestling tournament held in Thompson Falls with 16 teams coming together, Arlee, Fort Benton, Polson JV, Darby, Mission, Plains, Superior, Priest River Idaho, Sandpoint ID, Cascade, Fairfield, Deer Lodge, Valier, Missoula Sentinel, and Missoula Big Sky.

The boys will wrestle in Thompson Falls this year, while the girls will take to the mats at Plains High School.

The Ted Kato Memorial is named after lifelong educator and administrator Ted Kato who taught and coached all over Montana during his working days and wrapped up his teaching career in this area, after tours of classroom duty at both Thompson Falls and Plains. In the final years of his life, Kato took on the responsibility of coaching the Plains-Hot Springs wrestling team and also served as Sanders County Superintendent of Schools. In honor of his many contributions over the years, Thompson Falls administrators renamed the school’s annual wrestling tournament after Kato.

“The team is really excited to get back onto the matts for this big weekend tournament.” Coach Mike Thilmony stated.

Teams even all the way from Sandpoint are coming together for some of the best wrestling we could possibly see before the postseason. “We are seeing teams that we don’t normally see and the kids are really excited. We missed out on the Choteau Classic last weekend due to the weather so we missed seeing the teams we see before divisionals so this is a great opportunity to see what we will be competing against there.” Thilmony said.

If you are a big wrestling fan this weekend is your chance to see high energy wrestling from the boys starting at 9 a.m. in Thompson Falls and the girls in Plains, also starting at 9 a.m.

Thompson Falls will also host a pre-Kato mixer on Friday beginning at 5:30 p.m., welcoming Cascade, Fairfield, Fort Benton, Priest River and Valier.