George propels Lewiston to state

Lewiston senior Casey George has seen plenty of Coeur d’Alene wrestling over his four years as a Bengal. The two-time state champion battled against CdA’s Braden Mowry the last two seasons and last year watched the Vikings win the 5A State team title.

This year, though, the Bengals are looking to match that feat by their IEL rivals. Led by George’s fourth consecutive district championship, they started down that road with a team title in the 5A Region tournament Saturday in Rathdrum.

The Bengals finished with four champions and moved 15 wrestlers on to state, scoring 341.50 points to beat the defending state champion Vikings (324 points) and Post Falls (220).

“I think our team really stepped up this weekend,” said George, who recorded a 16-0 technical fall against Austin Wilson of Post Falls in the finals. “We had guys upset higher-ranked guys and our No. 2 guys did really good on the back side, which was huge. All over we really did well as a team.”

Lewiston joined host Lakeland at the 4A level and Bonners Ferry at 3A as champions.

The Vikings, who also advanced 15 wrestlers to next weekend’s state championships at the Idaho Center in Nampa, started the final round with 12 semifinalists but tallied just four wins.