If you were looking for some stiff competition, the Owen Invitational was a good place to start.

Thompson Falls boys and girls wrestling teams began the season grappling their way through the brackets in some very tough draws at one of Montana’s longest running prep tournaments in the Owen Invite in Polson Saturday, one dotted mostly with Class A teams this season.

Proving to be among the best no matter the class, Blue Hawk sophomore Weston Block, already a two-time State B-C place winner, won second place at 126 pounds with the boys, and Lexi Volk won fifth place and Matae Keefe sixth at 115 with the girls, to highlight Thompon Falls efforts in Polson.

“It was pretty stout competition, especially for the first tournament of the year,” Hawk co-coach Nathan Block said. “I was impressed with how the kids stepped up.”

Block and Volk both went 3-1 in matches to earn their honors, and Keefe and Liam Pallister, who wrestled at 172, recorded marks of 2-2 in Polson.

In his second year with the program, Pallister has shown marked improvement this season already, Block said. “Liam is showing significant growth out there on the mat,” he said. “He was right in it in all of his matches.”

Block added that Pallister is still in the process of deciding which weight to compete at, undoubtedly a common early season problem in high school wrestling.

Now that the Owen Invite has been wrestled, the next traditional tournament of the year around these parts, the Bob Kinney Memorial in Superior, will be held Saturday at Superior High School, and the Hawks will be there as usual, along with most grappling teams in the area.

Block said he has been impressed with how well his team has been operating behind the scenes so far this season.

“I am really proud of this team, boys and girls together,” he said. “They are very supportive of each other, willing to help the younger kids, doing the kind of things you hope they would do. And that’s good to see.”

Nathan’s co-head coach of the Hawks is his wife Ashley Block.

    THOMPSON FALLS SOPHOMORE Weston Block won second place at 126 pounds in the Owen Invitational in Polson Saturday. (courtesy photo)