CdA best of local teams
The eighth annual Badger Building Center River City Duals not only played out as seeded, it went down to the final match Saturday evening.
In a thrilling final featuring the top-ranked 4A teams in Idaho, a pair of crosstown rivals waged a tug-of-war to the final seconds as No. 1 Nampa slipped past No. 2 Skyview 32-30 at The Arena in Post Falls.
Kevin Lester of Nampa used a takedown and final-period escape for a 5-3 decision over Jason Rogers at 215 pounds.
It was Nampa’s second win over its rival in less than a week. The Bulldogs, who improved to 21-0 overall, topped the Hawks 32-27 in a conference dual Tuesday.
In another face off between local teams, Coeur d’Alene used seven straight wins in the lower to middle weights to cruise past Post Falls 51-18 in the match for third place.
Nampa, Skyview, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls won all four of their preliminary duals in the two-day, 20-team tourney. Skyview earned the berth in the title match over CdA based on winning more individual matches (42-40). Nampa, meanwhile, got the nod in the final over Post Falls based on scoring more team points overall in the duals.
The four teams met in a double-dual at CdA on Thursday in which Nampa slipped past CdA 32-28 and handled Post Falls 44-25 while Skyview topped CdA 37-27 and Post Falls 42-21.
CdA coach Jeff Moffat had no problem taking home the third-place trophy.
“Nampa and Skyview are better than us,” Moffat said. “They beat us on Thursday. If we’d have won a couple more matches (before the placing matches) we might have been in the finals. But they were the better teams.”
CdA took 10 of 14 matches against Post Falls. Mike Kincaid (112), Phillip Ludecke (125), Ryan Allen (189) and Kelen Efta (215) each won by pin while Josh Manes (135) and Zhena Mowry (140) won by technical fall for the Viks.
Post Falls’ top wins were by Kyle Neal (heavyweight) and Craig Byers (119).
The teams turn around and meet in a dual Wednesday at Post Falls. So Moffat cautioned his team to keep the win in perspective and prepare properly for the return dual.
“Dennis’ team (Dennis Amende, Post Falls’ coach) is good. We might have caught them tired,” Moffat said. “They could easily reverse this on us. They’ll be ready. I know how Dennis operates. He’ll have those guys fired up.”
Amende expects his team to bounce back.
“We’re a prideful program,” Amende said. “But you know what, Moffat and that bunch do a great job over there. … Right now they’re just better than we are. There were a lot of close matches and we were on the tail end of most of them. Maybe on Wednesday they’ll be a little different.”
Kyle Payne (125) of St. Maries was named the outstanding wrestler by the referees. The award honors the late Dave Linerud, a longtime referee who died of cancer a few years ago. Payne was one of 45 to go undefeated in the tourney.