THOMPSON FALLS — With a solid start, the Mission/Charlo wrestling team was able to finish with a second-place trophy.

At the 14-team Ted Kato Tournament in Thompson Falls last weekend, the Bulldogs led the tournament going into the semifinal matches.

“We started off really good,” head coach Lyle Cronk said. “We had pins from the whole team, it was quite exciting.”

Mission/Charlo’s two foreign exchange students, Victor Mendoza, from Mexico, and Ata Sahin, from Turkey, both had pins. Mendoza finished the tournament 1-2 and Sahin finished 2-2.

“They’ve never wrestled before,” Cronk said. “Going 2-2 is pretty good.”

The Bulldogs saw 10 wrestlers make it through to the semifinal round. After that, Mission/Charlo won only five matches.

“It was disappointing after the semifinals,” Cronk said. “We were in position to make a run at that championship.”

Individually, three Bulldogs took second, two took third and one placed fourth.

Russel Schultz, at 112 pounds, finished second after he was pinned. In the semi finals, Schultz beat Thompson Falls’ John Gunderman in overtime to make it through. Two weekends ago, Schultz had lost to him in the Choteau tournament.

Scotty Gilleard, at 125, was pinned by Arlee’s Logan Lefler for second and Dakota Matt was pinned by Arlee’s Cole Rice in the 140-pound championship. To make it back, Matt pinned Arlee’s Albert Plant after losing to him in Choteau.

Nick Dinnell and Casey Nitschke each took third place, at heavyweight and 119, respectively, while Dillon Edwards took fourth at 98 pounds.

“I was pleased with Edwards, Nitschke and Dinnell for wrestling back and placing,” Cronk said.

Wrestling back through the tournament for third and fourth place is good practice for the divisional tournament, where a top-three finish helps the team with points.

“We are going to get those placing points,” Cronk said. “We have some kids start to get some momentum.”

The forward charge will come in handy as the Bulldogs have a busy schedule this week. They travel to Plains on Thursday, Florence on Friday and Darby on Saturday.

“We are looking at getting ready for divisionals,” Cronk said. “We’re focusing on kids wrestling hard for the complete six minutes.”