The Bigfork Vikings have been known for football and basketball championships through the years and now, as winter squalls darken Flathead Lake, they seem about to make their name on the mat.

There used to be wrestling at this Class B school not far off Highway 35, but it went away in 2003. Eighteen years later and a few years after a program restart, the Vikings are 12-1 against Class A and B-C competition.

Shawn Hall, Bigfork’s 59-year-old coach, has guided wrestling programs for decades, including 18 years in New Jersey. The Iowa native moved to Bigfork for a non-teaching job five years ago; the Vikings had by then been resurrected on the mat in time for the 2013-14 season.

Now retired, Hall recalls spending his first couple months officiating wrestling, then coming on board as a Bigfork assistant and taking over the helm two years ago.

“The last couple of years we were limited to like five kids,” he said. “Most everything we did was a mixer.”

Now 14 kids are out, covering 12 of the 13 boys’ weight classes, and they are tough to out-dual.

“We lost our first one to Whitehall, and have kind of been on a roll since then,” Hall said.

So what happened? For starters a few freshmen moved in after building resumes in Little Guy Wrestling. They are Traic (pronounced, “Trace”) Fainter at 98, Jason Merringer at 113, Angus Anderson at 120 and Evan Tidwell at 182. Anderson has just one loss.

There are older wrestlers that have less experience, like sophomore Dale Relyeah, who weighs 170 but wrestles at 182 at times, and juniors Ryder Nollan (132) and Vaughn Pendlay (152). Nollan and Pendlay have five years combined experience on the mat.

There is also sophomore Joseph Farrier, the lone state qualifier last season, and juniors Patrick Wallen and Fletcher Postelwait.

The seniors are Archie Brevik, who made state as a sophomore but missed last season after knee surgery; along with Isaac Bjorge, Eli Tidwell and Shelton Woll.

People may remember Bjorge as a solid scorer and rebounder for the 2019-2020 basketball Vikings. Now – after cutting 18 pounds – he’s 10-2 as Bigfork’s 205-pounder.

“When I first made the decision to start wrestling, I was thinking, ‘How am I going to spend my senior year?’” Bjorge, who’s headed to MSU-Northern on a football scholarship, said this week. “I just thought wrestling would be more fun.”

Of course, it wasn’t his first trip to the mat. Bjorge was good enough in Little Guy to win four Montana state titles.

“It wasn’t all just a shot in the dark, you know,” Bjorge said. “And I’ve just had a great time. The whole atmosphere is really nice, really fun.”

“He’s just been lighting it up,” Hall said. “It’s been quite entertaining. He has wrestling skills from his younger days – he remembers. He’s just been getting better and better.”

Hall has similar feelings for junior Postelwait, who is 9-2 at 285.

“Just a big football player and nice kid, and who’s been winning a high percentage of his matches,” Hall said.

Just like the Vikings themselves. The state meet is March 5-6 in Shelby, and they might get to that rare air of a top-three trophy. As it is they haven’t had an individual state-placer since Matt Farrier took third at 170 in 2017.

“I think we’ve got some people that can do it this year,” Hall said. “We’ve got some kids who can be on the podium.

“For a long time we weren’t even able to put together a dual team, so to do that and have success would be a big program-builder for us.”

“We have a great bunch right now,” Bjorge said. “The proof is in the pudding. We’re 12-1. When some kids aren’t performing as well other kids will come in and help out. We’ve been pretty solid.”

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.