The captains led the way for the way for the Blue Hawk wrestlers in the Bob Kinney Memorial tournament in Superior Saturday.

Paced by meet champion Weston Block, who claimed the 126-pound title with three straight pin wins, and Carson Kenney (144) and Liam Pallister (175), who each placed third in class, Thompson Falls scored 75 team points to place sixth in team scoring in the tournament.

Billy Albano (103 pounds), Ethan Traver (118), Allen McGann (138), Easton Helvey (157) and heavyweight Riley Sanders also all competed in Superior but were unable t break into the medal round.

“It was a good tournament for us, the kids all wrestled well,” coach Nathan Block said. “We found some stuff we need to clean up, to work on in practice, but that’s what these early season meets are all about, learning what you need to do better.”

Weston’s father, Nathan as always, had a front row seat to his son’s doings on the mat in Superior.

After a flurry of back-and-forth action to begin the 126-pound championship match, Weston took control in the second period and pinned Corvallis’ K. Hill in 2:46 to claim the 126 title, pinning his third of three opponents on the day.

“Weston has been starting kind of slow in matches and we have been working on that,” coach Block said. "But he had a good tournament, is still working hard to get better.”

Coach Block was also impressed with the medal efforts of Kenney and Pallister.

In only his second year of wrestling, Kenney is starting to fully figure things out on the mat. “It’s starting to slow down for him out there, he sees what is going on better now,” Block said. "He had a great showing in Superior, something to build on.”

Also fairly new to wrestling, Pallister has also been impressing his coaches with his steady improvement. It seems Liam will have to make a decision soon as to what weight he

wants to compete at. “Liam is a pretty light 175 pounder, he could end up going down to 167,” Block said. "We’ll have to see how that goes.”

Up this week for the Hawks is their annual trip to Great Falls for the prestigious CM Russell Christmas Tournament, one of the biggest and best regular season wrestling tournaments in Montana any given season. The meet, for both girls and boys, will be run concurrently on the campuses of the CM Russell and Great Falls high schools Friday and Saturday.

“This tournament is tougher than any state tournament as schools from all the classes compete in it,” Block said. “Class AA, A, B-C… they are all there. Winning matches in this tournament is a big deal.”

Block said no one from Thompson Falls has ever won a CMR Christmas Tournament title, and that includes recent Hawk grappling greats like Trae Thilmony, Max Hannum and Eli Ratliff, to name a few, none of whom were able to win in Great Falls.

Weston Block took sixth place at 110 pounds in the CMR tourney last year, one of the few placing efforts at the event in TFHS history.

No girls wrestling was held in Superior Saturday. Coach Block thanked the three Hawk girl wrestlers who did attend the meet to support their teammates. “I thought that was pretty cool that they came to the meet and supported their teammates like that,” he said. “A little above and beyond the call I would say.”

    THOMPSON FALLS JUNIOR Liam Pallister controls his opponent in this match at 175 pounds in the Kinney Memorial tourney in Superior Saturday. (John Hamilton/vp-mi)