Vikings place second at CV

Jeff Moffat insisted he had no expectations for his Coeur d’Alene High wrestling squad coming into the Inland Empire Classic tournament at Central Valley.

It’s early in the season, he insisted.

“All I cared about was that the guys went out there and wrestled hard for 6 minutes in every match,” the head coach said.

The Vikings did all of that.

By the time the two-day tournament ended Saturday, Coeur d’Alene had earned a strong, second-place finish behind a dominating performance by Hermiston, Ore., which scored 220 1/2 points. The Vikings posted 167 1/2. Host Central Valley was third at 147, followed by Moses Lake (143 1/2) and University (130).

“You get 19 teams in here for this tournament and come right back next week with Tri-State and you have a pretty tough grind,” Moffat said. “I’m perfectly happy to come away with second here.”

Most of the 19 teams will return to the area for next week’s Tri-State tournament at North Idaho College.

The Vikings had one individual champion in 103-pound freshman Braden Mowry, who scored a 10-1 major decision over Derrick Booth of Post Falls in the final match. Five more Vikings reached the finals: Christian Putnam at 130, Isaak Lawler at 135, Jesse Nielson at 152, Jeremy Zabel at 160 and Grant Turner at heavyweight.

“What did it for us, I think, was our start,” Moffat said. “We started out 11-0 in the first round.”

Hermiston crowned four individual champions: Ryan Barton (152), Randy Larson (160), Troy Kessell (215) and heavyweight Garrett Later, and had finalists at three more weights.

For a pair of Spokane wrestlers, the event marked a first step back from injury.

U-Hi junior Brian Owen, coming off surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his back, won at 125, beating Lewis and Clark’s Trevor Powell in the finale.

East Valley junior Clete Hanson, coming off a broken leg left over from football, was victorious at 171.

“My back feels pretty good,” Owen said. “It was better yesterday. It started to get a little sore today. I’ll know more when I see what I feel like tomorrow.”

The final match was the first between the two returning state placers.

“I’ve never wrestled him before,” Owen said. “We were always in different weight classes before.”

For Hanson, it was a case of altered expectations.

“I’m not in as good a shape as I thought I was in,” Hanson said. “Coming in, I thought I was going to beat people up. My wind is not where it should be right now. But it’s still early.”

Although hampered by the injury, Hanson was able to manage a 3-2 victory over Hermiston’s Kevin Verway, a third-place finisher at last year’s Oregon state tournament.

U-Hi also saw Anthony Rivera win at 119, scoring a major decision over Lakeland’s Brandon Richardson in the title match.

Rathdrum’s Lakeland High School also had a pair of individual champions. Tim Klippert scored a 4-3 decision over Lawler at 135, and Zach Horsley scored a major decision over Hermiston’s Ethan Parks at 145.

LC’s Anthony Varnell, a returning State 4A placer, won at 140, scoring a 7-4 decision over Brent Parks of Hermiston.

The host Bears had two wrestlers reach the finals.

Junior Tanner Teeples, a 103-pound state champion in Utah last year, lost to Jake Love of Montana’s Sentinel in the title match at 112.

Jeremy Savage was a surprise winner at 130, scoring a 7-2 decision over Putnam.

“It was a pretty good tournament for us,” CV coach John Owen said. “We got a third-place finish from Tyler Cochran at 215 and a couple of more fourths.”

St. Maries tournament

Lake City had a pair of wrestlers win championships.

Freshman 103-pounder Marcus Banducci went 5-0 with three pins over the two-day event – beating Coeur d’Alene’s Andrew Palmer 11-6 in the title match.

Sophomore Arik Ackerman (112) had two pins in posting a 4-0 record – topping Orofino’s Preston Walker 8-5 in the championship match.

Bonners Ferry won the team title with 130 points – one point ahead of Kellogg. St. Maries (113) was third, followed by Priest River (110) and Timberlake (105).

Kamiah (104), Lake City (92), Orofino (83), Coeur d’Alene (79.5) and Freeman (64) rounded out the top ten finishers in the 19-team tournament.

Other champions were: Seth Wright (119), Lakeland; Patrick Neal (125), Timberlake; Dusty Funderburg (130), Kamiah; Will Yergler (135), Kellogg; David Hayes (140), Timberlake; Shane McCarver (145), Potlatch; Kenny Swift (152), Bonners Ferry; Richie Morales (160), Priest River; Kyle Joiner (171), St. Maries; Clayton Foster (189), Kamiah; Scott Holbrooke (215), Timberlake; Steven Frank (285), Kellogg.