They didn't have any individual gold medalists, but Wood River High School wrestlers made impressive progress Wednesday during the state-qualifying Great Basin Conference meet at Minico in Rupert.
Coach Shawn Huntington's Wolverines qualified eight wrestlers for the State 4A tournament Feb. 26-27 at Holt Arena in Pocatello. Four of the WRHS state qualifiers—Jared Anderson at 103 pounds, Nick Chase at 145, Kasey Barker at 189 and Auden Ruhter at 215—placed second in their weight classes.
In third place were Tim Boyle at 119 and Alex Thomas at 285. Taking fourth were Tommy Bailey at 135 and Tanner Orchard at 152 pounds.
The Wolverines as a team finished fourth of six schools with 154 points Wednesday, not far behind third-place Twin Falls (193.5). Jerome (313, 7 champs) successfully defended its conference title over last year's runner-up Minico (248).
One additional Wolverine wrestler, 160-pound freshman Storm Anderson, had to wrestle-off with a Twin Falls wrestler Thursday afternoon with that winner making it to state.
Comparing Wood River's results with last year's seven-school conference meet in which five wrestlers from each of 14 weight classes qualified for state—the 2010 WRHS team moved up from sixth place to fourth, and improved from six to eight state qualifiers.
Jerome and Minico each qualified 14 wrestlers for state, but third-place Twin Falls (7 qualifiers) had more gold medalists (4) than Minico (2). Fifth-place Burley (116.5) qualified six for state. The only district champion from 2009 who placed first again was Jonathon Albers of Jerome, at 135.
The league received four state representatives from each weight class for the 53rd annual Idaho Wrestling Championships. Top placers and records:
Teams: 1—Jerome 313. 2—Minico 248. 3—Twin Falls 193.5. 4—Wood River 154. 5—Burley 116.5. 6—Canyon Ridge 85.
103: 1—Eric Ayala (J) 3-0. 2—Jared Anderson (WR) 3-1. 112: 1—Kaden Luper (J) 3-0. 119: 1—Donovan Jones (CR) 3-0. 3—Tim Boyle (WR) 3-1. 125: 1—Joe Hamilton (TF) 2-0. 130: 1—Nick Thorne (J) 3-0.
135: 1—Jonathon Albers (J) 3-0. 4—Tommy Bailey (WR) 2-2. 140: 1—Will Keeter (TF) 3-0. 145—Todd Anderson (TF) 3-0. 2—Nick Chase (WR) 2-1. 152—David Borden (M) 4-0. 4—Tanner Orchard (WR) 2-2. 160: 1—Cody McCoy (J) 4-0. 4—Storm Anderson (WR) 3-2 (wrestle-off).
171: 1—Zak Slotten (TF) 3-0. 189—Riley Argyle (J) 3-0. 2—Kasey Barker (WR) 2-1. 215: 1—Ramiro Riojas (M) 2-0. 2—Auden Ruhter (WR) 2-1. 285: 1—Layne Lasike (J) 2-0. 3—Alex Thomas (WR) 3-1.