Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Three from WRHS off to state wrestling

At The Idaho Center Thursday


Three Wood River High School wrestlers will begin their state tournament adventure Thursday, Feb. 21 when the 51st annual Idaho State High School Wrestling Championships debut in Nampa.

Coach Tyson Young's Wood River Wolverines have qualified three for the three-day state meet at The Idaho Center. They are senior Collin Hand at 189 pounds, sophomore Tanner Orchard at 145 and freshman Andrew Orr at 152.

At last Wednesday's seven-school Great Basin Conference meet in Hailey, Hand placed third by winning four matches at 189. Orchard finished in fifth place with three match wins at 145. They will be making repeat trips to state. Orr won three matches for fifth place at 152.

The top five in 14 weight classes at Wednesday's conference meet held at Wood River High School qualified for the State 4A tournament. Conference team winner and 2006 State 4A champion Minico of Rupert led the league by qualifying 20 wrestlers for state.

Hand (23-5 this winter, 29-11 for sixth at state at 189 last year) drew Columbia junior Colton Vaughn (30-11) for his first-round match Thursday.

Orchard (6-7) has perhaps the toughest assignment. At 145 pounds he drew top-seeded Abner Cook of Pocatello (42-0 this winter, 35-4 for third at state last year) for his first match. At 152 Orr (10-19) in his first state meet goes against Tim Hazelbaker of Mountain Home.

Minico's outstanding senior Nate Crane (30-3) is one of five top-seeded state wrestlers from the Great Basin Conference. A state champ with a 37-1 mark at 112 last February, Crane captured Wednesday's 119-pound weight class on the Hailey mat.

Other Great Basin top seeds are Jerome junior Cory Cummins (34-0) at 103 pounds, Minico senior David Burgara (36-0) at 130, Cook of Pocatello at 145 and Minico senior Josh Ramirez (27-3) at 285 pounds.

Blackfoot was last year's State 4A team champion by a 178-165.5 margin over Sandpoint. It was Blackfoot's first state wrestling championship since the Broncos won back-to-back 5A titles in 1999 and 2000.

First-round matches begin Thursday at high noon. The championship round on four mats representing the four different classes is Saturday shortly after 2:30 p.m. General admission for the early rounds is $5, and $6 for the final round.




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