Pressure Performer

Braves' 189-pounder set to try to lead Flathead to second straight Class AA state wrestling team title

hen you watch Chris Thompson wrestle a match, particularly against an inferior opponent, you almost wonder if your eyes are playing tricks on you.

Thompson, Flathead's 189-pounder who holds the No. 1 ranking at that weight in the state, flies around the mat like he's moving in fast-forward and his helpless prey looks stuck in slow-motion, or even pause.

Takedowns can come with the ease and frequency of an attention-challenged channel surfer until Thompson has seemingly had enough and puts an end to the mismatch with an emphatic pin.

Thompson's speed is surprising given his weight class and muscle bulk he carries around. Such is the advantage for a wrestler who has climbed from 145 pounds as a sophomore to 189 in his senior season.

"At 145 and those lower weights, most of the guys are going to be quicker than you," he said. "I've always been pretty quick, and as I got bigger and bigger, I became quicker than the guys I wrestled."

Starting out in the lower weight classes helped Thompson develop a wrestling style consistent with smaller wrestlers, and that has served him well against bigger opponents.

"Moving up from 145 to 189 in his high school career is what has made him so tough," said Braves coach Jeff Thompson, no relation.

"He wrestles like a little guy. He has that speed, that explosiveness of a 145-pounder. Most of those 189-pounders, they're a lot slower, they're real tight. He's loose out there hammering away at guys. And he has great endurance. A lot of those big guys have those big muscles and get tired.

"It's a huge advantage for him that's he's grown that much."

Throughout his Flathead career, which started as a sophomore after his family relocated from southern Wisconsin, Chris Thompson has seen steady improvement in his performance on the mat.

As a sophomore he placed fourth at state as a 145-pounder, though he wrestled most of the season at 152. Last year, when the Braves won their first team wrestling title since 1973, Thompson finished second at 160 after spending most of the season at 171.

Now as a senior, there is only one acceptable outcome - state champion. He will remain at 189 - where he has compiled a 30-4 record - for divisionals, which start today at 4 p.m. and next weekend at the state tournament in Billings.

"I just need to know that when I go to state that I'm the best one in my weight class," he said. "Just knowing that since you've been training that you're in better condition than anyone out there, and how long I've been wrestling, how well I've been doing, you've got to know that you're the best.

"If you have doubts, you're not going to wrestle well."

An individual championship for Thompson would be the culmination of an eight-year journey that began in a fourth-grade Little Guy program back in Wisconsin - "it was something to do at the time" - and follows in the footsteps of older brothers Matt and Greg, who was a senior on last year's team and wrestles for a community college program in California.

Along the way, the self-described overachiever has played football, dabbled in music (saxophone and guitar), earned a back belt in tae kwon do and became an Eagle Scout on his 18th birthday.

He also rock climbs in the summer, has been an avid body builder the last few years and when wrestling is over he likes to ski. Through it all, wrestling has been the bell cow leading him through life.

"Chris is not your rah-rah type leader," coach Thompson said. "He leads by example, and other wrestlers in our room want to do the things he does.

"Chris does the right things - he eats right, he works out nonstop, he's in the weight room in the offseason, he's wrestling year-round, he's going to camps, he's a very good sportsman.

"He's a great leader, everybody respects him."

It is not difficult to see why he is looked up to by other Braves. His win-loss record aside, Chris Thompson is a physical specimen, a prime example of the adjective "chiseled." Somewhat quiet and unassuming, he lets his offseason training dedication speak for itself.

"I like to lift weights," he said. "In the offseason I train for power and I lift heavy. Once wrestling season begins I do a lot of high-rep stuff.

"I go for all-around symmetry. I don't really lift for maxes."

However the next week or so shakes out, Thompson is hopeful of a collegiate wrestling career while studying for a business degree, though he's not sure where.

"I don't know if I'd want to start out at a Division I school," he said. "You can get a lot of experience (at a lower division)."

Before that, though, is the matter of defending Flathead's state title, and as one of the few seniors on a young team, Thompson will be counted on to help lead the way.

"We don't have a lot of seniors, so the few that we have, they're the ones that are seeing how the team is feeling, how they're dealing with the practice," coach Thompson said. "The seniors communicate with us."

And when the pressure reaches its zenith in Billings, that's where the leadership is most important.

"He is a gamer," coach Thompson said. "He gets it done when the pressure is on. He's going to set that example for us at the state meet and the younger wrestlers are going to follow him."

If it's needed, Chris has some simple advice for any teammate a little unsure of themselves heading into state.

"I think they have to know that they are going to be a part of winning a state title," he said. "We have solid guys at every weight class, we have one of the best coaching staffs in Montana, we have the best JV team in the state, too.

"You have to go all out for six minutes. Every match you wrestle there you wrestle better than you ever did before."