Area’S Seeded Wrestlers Roll Into Quarters Lewiston Advances Six Entrants As Panhandle Favorites Move On

North Idaho’s top seeds at the state wrestling tournaments advanced into quarterfinal matches with no trouble Thursday.

Lewiston led Inland Empire League A-1 teams in first-round matches at Idaho State University’s Holt Arena, pushing six wrestlers into this morning’s quarterfinals.

Sandpoint and Moscow each advanced four entrants in the championship bracket, while Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls have one each.

In the A-2 meet, five Intermountain League teams combined to advance 18 into the quarterfinals. St. Maries, which qualified 15 to state, and Kellogg each had five opening-round winners, Bonners Ferry and Lakeland had three each and Priest River had two.

Quarterfinals begin in the A-1 meet today at 8 a.m. PST, followed by the A-2s and A-3s. In the evening, semifinal matches begin in the A-1 at 5, followed in order by A-2 and A-3. There will also be two rounds of consolation matches.

The championship finals will be wrestled Saturday about 2 p.m. PST.

A-1

High seeds Jake Rosholt of Sandpoint, Willie Wicks of Lewiston and Ryan Flugel of Moscow carried the Panhandle’s banner in their opening matches.

Wicks, seeded second at 145 pounds, pinned Tim Qualls of Emmett in 5:29.

Undefeated Rosholt, a sophomore, posted an 8-2 decision over Robert Wright of Emmett at 160.

Flugel, the top seed at 171, held off Pat McIntrye of Vallivue 5-2.

Sandpoint also had two first-round winners in consolation.

“As young as we are, we did pretty well,” Sandpoint coach Mike Randles said.

Randles was especially pleased with Steve Boren at 112 and Tony Hook at 135. Boren topped Tyler Robinson of Blackfoot 5-3 after Boren lost to the same opponent 9-3 earlier in the season at the Madison Invitational.

Hook, a freshman, also turned around an earlier defeat, topping Chet Garner of Centennial 3-1 in double overtime.

Under double-overtime criteria, a wrestler has 30 seconds to either break free from underneath or ride an opponent for the allotted time.

“Tony chose bottom and he broke out just before the buzzer,” Randles said.

Sandpoint’s Mick Coon opened tough at 125, losing to the defending state champ, Tri-State champ Joseph Corral of Meridian, 6-1. Coon came back to stay alive in a consolation match.

Post Falls junior heavyweight Aristo Arana suffered the biggest disappointment as he was eliminated in two matches.

Arana, who came back from two knee surgeries, dropped a heartbreaker in his opening match, falling to Justin Peterson of Rigby 4-2 in overtime.

In his consolation match, Arana was stopped by Matt Jones of Burley 6-2.

“He just frankly wasn’t physically ready to be there,” Post Falls coach Dennis Amende said. “Mentally and technically he was, but physically he wasn’t. It was a miracle he was able to get here in the first place.”

In other openers, Kyle Watson of Sandpoint pinned Mark Harper of Minico in 4:36 at 103; Justin Houska of Moscow needed just 36 seconds to flatten Josh Anderson of Minico at 130; Coeur d’Alene’s Carl Thompson tripped Ben Stoddard of Blackfoot 6-4 in overtime at 140; and Luke Smith of Post Falls pinned David Adamson of Nampa in 3:04 at 145.

A-2

Two of the IML’s best chances at state titles breezed in their openers.

Bonners Ferry’s Travis Liermann, the defending champ at 160, scored a technical fall while Lucas Blaine of Priest River, the top seed at 152, needed 1:02 to pin Marc Coy of Weiser.

Leading St. Maries were low-weight specialists Shaun Willey (103) and Travis Duffey (112).

Willey posted a technical fall over Monte Johnson of Payette and Duffey pulled off the same over Shilo Pearce of Weiser.

Second-seeded James Bush of Kellogg pinned Dustin Wells of Gooding in 3:03 at 119.

Lakeland’s Dylan Steigemeier, seeded second at 135, topped Kai Elliot of Wendell 8-3.

Levi Cushman, a senior heavyweight from Lakeland, pinned Adam Cluff of Payette in 3:39.

A-3

Two area wrestlers prevailed in the opening round.

Brandon Pine of Wallace pinned Brandon Talbot of Midvale in 1:59 at 140, while Kootenai’s Brady Livermore slipped past Rudy Hendrickson of West Side 11-10 in a thriller at 160.