Perhaps nowhere is it more appreciated to be competing against non-teammate opponents than the conclusion of preseason training among high school wrestlers.

And if early results are any indication, the three high schools in the Mineral and Sanders Counties area that field wrestling teams are in for a pretty good season after going up against teammates the past several weeks during pre-season practices.

This past weekend wrestlers from Thompson Falls, Superior and Plains, including co-op partners Hot Springs (with Plains) and Noxon (with T Falls) brought home a respectable amount of honors hardware from the Owen Invitational tournament this past Friday and Saturday in Polson’s Linderman Gym.

Several dozen schools in both boys and girls wrestling categories were entered in the meet, which attracted wrestlers from throughout the Northwest. More than 250 wrestlers competed in the prestigious meet, which is traditionally the first big event of the year for area high school grapplers.

Thompson Falls senior Max Hannum, who is also playing basketball for the Blue Hawks simultaneously with wrestling, kept his momentum from a state title last year going when he captured first place in the 182-pound classification at the Owen.

Hannum won his individual title when he pinned Rowdy Crump of Columbia Falls via a technical fall at the 4:15 mark of their title match.

Hannum’s win at 182 helped the Blue Hawks to a fourteenth place finish in the boys’ team standings with 59.5 points.

Ronan High School won the team title with a whopping 266.0 points, while Frenchtown was the team runner-up with 226.5 team points.

Superior High School, last year’s Class C state team champions, was eighth overall, while Plains High/Hot Springs came in ninth with 81 points.

In the girls competitions, more than 120 wrestlers competed in Polson, a sign of the rising popularity of the sport among high school-age girls.

Top among local girls teams was Thompson Falls, which placed fourteenth out of 18 teams. The Lady Hawks had 17 team points.

Ronan made it a sweep of both the boys and girls team titles when their girls team captured first place with 168 points, just ahead of second-place Polson’s girls team.

On the boys side, Plains got a second place finish at 145 pounds from senior Drew Carey, who dropped a hard-fought 6-2 decision to 145-pound champ Fortino Silva from Ronan.

The Horsemen also had a third place showing from Johnny Waterbury, one of the Hot Springs wrestlers who was a state placer last year.

Waterbury, a junior, improved to 4-1 on the year with a narrow 8-5 decision in the third place match at 152 pounds, winning over Columbia Falls wrestler Billy Gustafson.

Plains added fifth place medals at 103 pounds (Matthew Thurston, pin over Justus Orman-Bergman in :31), and Gavin Schrenk, who beat Cameron Beall of Hamilton with a fall at 2:46.

Superior had another fine showing at the Owen, with senior heavyweight Jaxson Green leading the way when he finished second in the 285 pound division. Green lost the finals in that category when he was pinned by Eureka’s Riley Hume at the 1:22 mark.

Bobcats freshman Turner Milender also brought home a silver medal when he finished second in the 160 pound class. Milender, younger brother of 2022-23 state champion Decker Milender (126 pounds), was pinned by Lake City High junior Nathan Booth at the 4:26 mark of their title match.

The Bobcats also got a third place finish from senior Micah Acker, another of the state placers from last year, when he pinned Ronan’s August Courville at the 1:38 mark of their consolation match.

Joining Hannum on the medal podium for Thompson Falls was eighth-grader Westin Block, who placed third at 103 pounds when he pinned Frenchtown freshman Landon Hansen, 2:42.

T Falls girls got a fourth place finish at 100 pounds from Desani Bewick, while teammate Veronica Vega placed fifth.

Desani, one of coach Mike Thilmony’s promising group of young lady freshman wrestlers, lost the third place match to Vanessa Nace of Columbia Falls, while Vega claimed fifth place in the 100-pound division with a pin over Ava Larson, Bigfork, at 2:48.

The Lady Hawks also got a sixth place finish from Jaden Bewick, who lost the fifth place match to Browning’s Nancy Harwood by fall at :25.

Next on the agenda for local wrestlers is a mixer this Thursday (Dec 7) in Thompson Falls.

The next big meet of the year is this Saturday in Superior when the Bobcats host the Bob Kinney Invitational beginning at 9:30 a.m.

    Plains wrestler Drew Carey controls Eureka's John Lambertson in their 145 pound match at this past weekend's Owen Invitational in Polson. Carey took second at 145 pounds. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)
  

    Thompson Falls 182 pound senior Max Hannum was the upper hand on his way to the 182-pound title at this past weekend's Owen Invitational wrestling event in Polson. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press).