High test wrestling dual on tap tonight at Flathead

The Montana Intensive Wrestling Camp drew 350 wrestlers from all over the mainland and also Hawaii, and as it winds down has a solid Wednesday night diversion.

The Flathead Brave Brawlers have a dual with nationally-ranked Lowell, Mich., set for 5:30 p.m. today at Flathead High School.

Admission is free, though donations to benefit the Flathead Valley Wrestling Club are appreciated.

Lowell, the nine-time Michigan state champion, is ranked 50th in the nation by MatScouts (rokfin.com), while Flathead sits outside the top 50 after winning the last two Montana AA titles.

“We have some highly-ranked boys that we’ll try to get in, because it’s fun and it’s a chance to highlight the sport and what’s going on in the Valley this week,” Flathead coach Jeff Thompson said.

The matches are to be two periods: Two minutes of folkstyle, and two minutes of freestyle.

“Just because so many of these wrestlers are in the middle of their training cycle for USAW Junior Nationals (July 16-22) in Fargo, N.D.,” Thompson said.

There will be plenty of marquee matches: Tacho Gonzalez of Lowell against Flathead’s Cade Troupe at 160; Gabe Lake, who was second at last year’s State AA tournament at 160, against Landon Miller; Lowell’s 170-pound Michigan state champion, Casey Engle, against Anders Thompson, who was second at 170 at State in February.

In addition to a full boys dual there will be two marquee girls matches and one boys match on tap:

Anna DiCuiono out of Washington is set to go against Minnesota state champion Rian Grunwald at 125 and Gannon Wisher of Flathead against Koen Shigemoto of Hawaii at 120.

Washington state champion AJ Salguero is penciled in to face Eric Larwin, a state placer in Oregon, at 126.