Wolverines make most of district wrestling
Goicoechea, Squires are SCIC champs
Wood River High School junior Cory Goicoechea came as close
as you can come to a perfect season Saturday during the 43rd annual Idaho State Wrestling
Championships at Holt Arena in Pocatello.
Top-seeded Goicoechea, unbeaten for the entire 1999-2000 season and winner
of 56 consecutive matches dating back to last winter, wrestled all the way to the
171-pound championship match before falling 2-1 to Bonners Ferry junior John Plato.
It was a heartbreaking loss for a wrestler as competitive as Goicoechea
(33-1 season, 96-16 career). He had won the State A-2 152-pound championship last February
and finally encountered a wrestler with just a little more strength in Plato.
But there was a silver lining for Goicoechea.
Third-seeded Plato, fifth at state at 171 pounds in 1999, captured his
first state title while Goicoechea, who made the difficult jump from 152 to 171 pounds
this winter, settled for the silver medal in his third state meet.
Fifteenth-year Wood River wrestling coach Tom Goicoechea, Cory’s
father, said, "It was one of those life lessons. I was proud of Cory. He handled it
real well and had a great year.
Coach Goicoechea said Plato was a defensive wrestler, real strong but a
staller. Cory threw him right away, in the first 15 seconds, but Plato had a way of
working himself out of the circle and saving points. Plato did it in the first round, and
then again when Cory got a single leg with 20 seconds left in the second period.
The only point in the first two periods came when Goicoechea escaped from
the down position and inched ahead 1-0. "Plato never did shoot," coach
Goicoechea said.
Plato, choosing down in the third, scored a two-point reversal and locked
up Goicoechea for the remaining time. "Cory almost got out a couple of times but just
couldn’t do it," the coach said.
Trying to become Wood River’s first unbeaten wrestler since senior
John Pascoe went 27-0 and won the state 130-pound championship in 1990, Goicoechea made
the final match with a thrilling 3-1 semi-final triumph over Jordan Peterson of
Sugar-Salem on Friday.
Goicoechea’s two-point takedown with 10 seconds left was the winning
margin against Peterson. Earlier in the three-day tournament, Goicoechea pinned Darrin
Kellogg of Grangeville at 3:26 and won a 15-3 major decision over Kealii Hayes of Bear
Lake.
Another Wolverine wrestler, freshman Matt Conover, also had an excellent
tournament. Conover (20-17) came from behind several times in winning three matches at 112
pounds, good for sixth place.
Conover won 9-6 over Mike Vaughn of Marsh Valley, 9-8 over Phil Durrant of
Kuna and 9-2 over Monte Johnson of Payette. He lost 16-5 to eventual third-place Brady
Spurway of Lakeland, 11-0 to Fourth District king J.D. Gould of Buhl and 10-2 to Josh
Bowcutt of Preston.
"Matt did a great job," coach Goicoechea said.
Winning one state match apiece were Wolverine senior Todd Christiansen
(19-14 season, 63-57 career) at 215 and sophomore 145-pound district king Brian Squires
(29-13).
Junior Zac Broadie (10-16 season, 33-41 career) had another tough draw in
his second state meet and lost a couple of matches.
Outstanding A-2 wrestlers were Snake River senior Clint Wolfley and
Kimberly senior Casey Gambrel.
Wolfley, the 119-pound king, became only the fifth A-2 wrestler to become
a four-time state champion. Gambrel (37-0) had three pins and a 4-2 decision to win the
140-pound state championship—his second straight title after a 135-pound win.
Sending only five wrestlers to state, Wood River (33 points) nevertheless
finished 19th of 31 schools in the team standings—ahead of SCIC rivals Buhl, Wendell
and Filer. SCIC team champion Gooding ended up eighth with 83 points at state.
Tough in the lower and upper weights, Sugar-Salem of Sugar City entered 17
wrestlers (two 1sts, one 2nd, four 3rds) and won its third A-2 team championship in five
years by a 173-122 margin over Lakeland (11 entries and three first-place winners).
Blackfoot earned its second straight State A-1 team title and North
Fremont of Ashton captured its second consecutive A-3 championship and fourth in five
years. So the best teams in the state came from the tough eastern Idaho mats, again.
