Wood River High School wrestler Jordan Vert won the Great Basin Conference title Wednesday in the 160-pound weight class.
Competing at the seven-team state qualifying meet at Century High School in Pocatello, Vert (18-2 for the season) won all three of his matches to qualify for a trip to the state 4A tournament next week.
Two other Wood River wrestlers also qualified for state: Collin Hand went 2-1 at 189 pounds for a second-place qualifying finish and Tanner Orchard was 3-2 at 135 pounds to qualify with fourth place. The top five finishers in each weight class qualified for the state meet, which runs Feb. 22-24 in Pocatello at the Holt Arena on the Idaho State University campus.
A fourth Wolverine, Nick Chase at 119 pounds, nearly qualified for state. He went 2-2 to place sixth.
Although the Wolverines placed seventh in the meet, Wood River coach Tyson Young was pleased with the performance of his young team.
"They all wrestled well from where we started in the beginning to where we are now," he said. "I'm very pleased with how they did."
Long-time wrestling powerhouse Minico High School won the district title and qualified 16 Spartans for the state tournament.
Pocatello placed second and Preston took the third spot. Jerome placed fourth, Burley fifth, Century sixth and Wood River seventh.
It was an exciting meet, said Tyson, sounding hoarse Thursday morning as if he had a cold.
"I did a lot of positive yelling last night—that's what I like to call it."
