No letup for Braves

Flathead wrestlers travel to Wyoming for Pat Weed Duals

It doesn't get any easier for the Flathead Brave wrestling team, at least for one more week.

The Braves have been on quite a tear in recent weeks - they won the Mining City Duals for the first time in school history on Dec. 7-8, then won the prestigious Tri State Tournament Dec. 14-15 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

They followed that up with an impressive 176-0 shellacking of Missoula Big Sky and Missoula Hellgate on Wednesday - and now they're in Gillette, Wyo., taking on some of the best wrestling teams the Northwest has to offer at the Pat Weed Duals.

And after this?

They're planning some time off.

The Braves, 8-0 in duals this season, are looking forward to competing in Gillette, coach Jeff Thompson said.

"We're healthy and are in excellent condition right now. We've had a lot of matches already for this early in the season, but we'll get some time off after the Gillette duals," he said.

"It will be a great challenge for our team. We wrestle seven duals in two days - and each one will be tough. These are some of the toughest teams in the Northwest Region.

"We really need to change our focus from being a tournament team to a dual meet team to win this meet," Thompson said.

"There is a big difference between the two. I think we can be very successful at both, but we had to move a few wrestlers around in weight to give us more options," he added.

As for the other teams at Gillette, Thompson confesses the Braves really don't know much about them.

"But we will be having a coach scouting the other teams as we are competing," he promised.

Flathead opens the duals against Deer Park, Wash., the fifth-place team at last weekend's Tri State.

"They are very tough from top to bottom and look to be a very strong dual meet team," he said.

Others on Flathead's schedule are Star Valley, Wyo., Bismark Century, N.D., and Gillette, Wyo., all today.

On Saturday, Flathead starts the day with Class A defending state champion Havre, followed by Wassen, Colo., and Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Weight Name Record State Place Grade

103 Caleb Piasecki 8-3 9

Zach Reimnitz 9-4 5 11

112 Shawn Lau 14-1 1 10

Ryan Swelland 99-3 11

119 Joaquin Calderon 14-4 4 10

Jeremiah Gaiser 10-2 9

125 Dan Jenkins 7-3 3 11

130 Tanner Beaman 15-3 5 11

135 Brian Ham 16-1 1 12

140 TC Decker 16-1 1 12

Steven Mantel 7-4 11

145 Bryce Stacy 10-2 1/6 11

Ryan Thiel 11-3 4/5 11

152 Tyler Wells 16-1 2/5 12

Caleb Allen-Schmid 13-4 6th 10

160 David Lau 15-3 2/5 12

171 Luke Fischer 16-2 2/6 12

189 Ian Damon 12-1 11

215 Mark Svenson 9-4 6 12

Justin Waverek 11-3 12

275 Tyler Thomas 16-1 6 11