Column: Tearing the lid off the place
Sixteen years ago I covered the State A portion of the All-Class State Wrestling tournament at the Billings Metra. It ended with Sidney dominating the field, which is fitting.
Not quite 10 years ago a tornado touched down in Billings, parked over what they now call First Interstate Bank Arena and tore the roof off the thing.
Minor injuries were reported from the tornado, which caused some $27 million in damage. I drove by a couple weeks later and you could look right into the bowl while Main Street carried you to the Billings Heights.
“Well,” I thought. “Maybe they’ll fix it up right.”
Now that I’ve been back I can report that the Metra looks good as new, and in reality is Good As Old: Sidney again romped to the title, for starters.
Meanwhile a text competing with 6,000 others still only rarely made it out of the place; getting and staying online to update Twitter or stories was an equally iffy proposition.
The good news is trackwrestling.com replaced the runner/paper results that made the tournament chug along a decade ago. The bad news is that the website crashed twice on Friday.
We survived – we always do. It’s not about us anyway, is it? It’s the one venue in the state that can hold 12 wrestling mats, and thus this event. It remains an amazing tournament with outstanding wrestlers.
Like Thompson Falls sophomore Trae Thilmony, the State B/C champion at 120 pounds; Libby’s Trey Thompson, a senior who finished second at 152 in State A; and Isaiah Allik of St. Ignatius, who went 42-0 and won the 170 B/C crown.
“I’m kind of stunned, honestly,” said Allik. “We worked so hard for this – my whole team, they pushed me. I’ve dreamed of this since I started wrestling at 5 years old.”
Then there are Eureka juniors Kyle Durden and Gunnar Smith, one half of the Lions’ Fantastic Four. Smith won his third state title Saturday and is in line to become a rare four-time champion, along with Lewistown’s Cooper Birdwell.
Birdwell scored a 15-2 major decision over three-time champion Jake Bibler of Frenchtown – which is less surprising when you know Bibler had a collarbone injury.
Smith, Birdwell and Bibler all won state as freshmen. To that list add Anaconda’s Nate Blodnick (103, B/C), Sidney’s Owen Lonski (103, A), Jesse Aarness of Billings West (120, AA), Avery Allen of Bozeman (132, AA) and Glacier’s Teegan Vasquez (113, AA) in 2020.
Flathead had 10 wrestlers climb the podium Saturday, including Tanner Russell and Garett Rieke, second and third at 170 pounds. The places – and points – kept coming. The Brave Brawlers ended up second to Great Falls High.
“They really improved each and every weekend this year,” Flathead coach Jeff Thompson said after the team picked up ninth trophy in his tenure. “We didn’t even place in the Mining City Duals but they just kept believing in our Flathead culture and putting the time in.”
Six of those place-winners return, which means the Brawlers aren’t ‘t going anywhere. Nor are the Sidney Eagles (six finalists return, five of them champions), or the Metra, or this event. But Sidney fans might just raise the roof.
Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or at fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com. You can follow him on twitter @Fritz_Neighbor.