Wrestling has been taking Weston Block places this summer, courtesy of the AAU Scholastic Duals program.

A rising junior at Thompson Falls and already a two-time State B-C medal winner for the Blue Hawks, Block wrestled for a Montana community team in the national finals of the AAU event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida June 23-29.

Block’s summer mat sojourn began with a wrestling-intensive weeklong stay in Sidney in early June where he first worked with the Montana contingent, continued in a two-day wrestling camp stint at the University of Minnesota campus at the Gopher’s impressive facility in Minneapolis-St. Paul along the way, and finally concluded with the duals tournament in Florida.

The squad Block was on represented some of the best Class AA, A and B-C wrestlers in Montana, coached by some of the best coaches, a life experience opportunity Block was happy to take advantage of.

Block said he enjoyed and benefited from the wrestling experience, but that he also appreciated the chance to get out on his own, to make new friends, and test his growing cooking skills as well.

“It was a really cool experience,” he said. “We had three days off before the wrestling began in Florida so they kind of turned us loose, let us do some shopping, go the to the beach, do some fishing.

“We always had chaperones but were expected to kind of take care of ourselves,” he added, “and that meant cooking for ourselves, too.”

Block said his cooking was a hit with his grappling buddies in the place where they stayed, pointing to some unique marinating recipes – Dr. Pepper for chicken strips one night and Gatorade and other spices for steak trimmings another night.

On the mats, Block said the Montana contingent was broken into different community teams based on intrasquad competition they had in Montana with the goal being to even out talent as much as possible.

A highlight of the trip was the stay in Minnesota where the Big Sky boys had a chance to practice in the Minnesota Gophers’ Big 10 wrestling room and experience the atmosphere of big-time college wrestling firsthand at the two-day camp there.

The Montana teams competed well against the talent-rich teams from Florida in Fort Lauderdale, Block offered. “There are some very good wrestlers from that area,” he said. “The Montana kids learned a lot, we held our own.”

Also a top-flight distance runner, Block earned All-State B honors in cross country last fall for Thompson Falls. Training with his team in Florida last month he displayed that running prowess, winning a 5K race with the rest of the squad and finishing second in a 10K race with the team. Block won sixth place at the State B-C wrestling meet at 118 pounds as a freshman and fifth at that weight as a sophomore.

Block wanted to thank those who donated or otherwise helped him realize his wrestling goals, in particular the Trout Creek Park, and attend the AAU Scholastic Duals this summer.