Nine Wood River High School wrestlers are headed for the State 4A meet Feb. 26-27 at Holt Arena in Pocatello. Action in the 53rd annual Idaho High School Wrestling Championships begins Friday with the first of four sessions at 10 a.m.
Wolverine freshman Storm Anderson won Thursday's wrestle-off with Kevin Freeman of Twin Falls to make it to state. Anderson pinned Freeman in the third round.
Here are WRHS wrestlers and opening-round matches:
103 pounds—Freshman Jared Anderson (12-9) vs. Hillcrest freshman Cade Williams (15-12).
119—Freshman Tim Boyle (12-8) vs. #4-seeded Blackfoot senior Stephen Agee (19-10).
135—Freshman Tommy Bailey (7-17) vs. #2-seeded Bonneville senior Bryce Howard (40-4), last year's fifth-place state finisher at 135.
145—Senior Nick Chase (14-7) vs. Bishop Kelly junior Zach White (16-15).
152—Senior Tanner Orchard (23-12) vs. Jerome senior Tyler Powell (29-4).
160—Freshman Storm Anderson (12-22) vs. #3-seeded Blackfoot senior Chris Percy (26-6), last year's third-place state finisher at 152.
189—Junior Kasey Barker (22-11) vs. Minico sophomore Joseph Valencia (10-5).
215—Sophomore Auden Ruhter (10-9) vs. #3-seeded Columbia senior Ty Jordan (37-10).
285—Junior Alex Thomas (14-8) vs. #3-seeded Blackfoot senior Roberto Chavez (28-5), last year's third-place state finisher at 215 pounds.
Carey boys need one win for state
One more win tonight for the Carey School boys' varsity basketball team (20-2, 16-0 league) will give the Panthers their 14th state tournament berth in 18 years—and their fifth Northside Conference tournament title in eight years.
Top-seeded Carey will clash with #2-seeded Murtaugh (16-4) for the Northside championship tonight, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Dietrich High School gym. The winner gets an automatic berth to the State 1A Division 2 tournament starting Thursday, March 4 in Caldwell.
Coach Dick Simpson's Panthers earned their fifth consecutive 20-win season Monday night with a 61-49 semi-final victory over #5-seeded Richfield (7-15). Carey put four players in double figures for only the third time this season.
Panther scorers were Trevor Peck 14 points, Brett Adamson 13, Wacey Barg 11, Blair Peck 10, Tyler Chavez 9, Dillon Simpson 2 and Jacy Baird 2. Michael Lezamiz tallied a game-high 22 including four of Richfield's seven 3-pointers.
In the loser bracket of the eight-team tournament Monday at Dietrich, the #4 Camas County Mushers (8-12) bounced back from a 20-point opening-round loss to Richfield and eliminated The Community School (13-8) by a 49-44 score.
Will Brokaw (6.0 ppg) scored a season-best 17 points and senior guard Paul Davis (11.1 ppg) ended his Sun Valley career with 11 points for the Fish.
Hailey boys work for win in the Basin
Wood River High School boys' basketball coach John Radford impresses upon his teams that the regular season is a learning experience—a good tune-up for what he hopes will be a strong effort in the Great Basin Conference tournament.
Radford was proud of his young #6-seeded Wolverines for turning it up a notch Thursday and capturing a 57-52 victory over the #5 Canyon Ridge Riverhawks (4-17) in a loser-out game of the six-team GBC tourney, at Twin Falls.
The 57-point output was a season-high for a Wood River team (3-18) that has struggled on offense this season, averaging 34.8 ppg. The outcome snapped a 14-game losing streak for Wood River and improved the school's six-season 4A boys' tourney mark to 2-12.
Radford said, "Rebounding, scoring points and having more assists than turnovers are good stats that lead to a win. We had all three against Canyon Ridge."
Leading scorer Stone Sutton (8.4 ppg) scored a team-high 15 points with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Senior Keven Abbott (6.9 ppg), the second-leading scorer, added 14 points and 6 rebounds. And third-leading scorer Quentin Dowdle (4.1 ppg) chipped in with 8 big points plus 7 rebounds.
One of Wood River's leaders down the stretch was senior Juan Martinez (4.1 ppg season, 8.0 ppg last 4 games). He scored 5 points with 8 rebounds and 4 assists against the 'Hawks. Kevin Jensen added 8 points and Jordan Doan had 3 assists.
Wood River couldn't put together solid back-to-back tournament efforts and saw its season end Saturday with a 60-35 loss at #4-seeded Burley. Abbott had 10 points, Sutton 9 and Martinez 9. Then, Burley (11-13) was ousted Monday 62-44 by #3-seeded host Jerome (13-10).
Radford expressed thanks to Colton Ahenakew, who filmed the team's games and was the Most Valuable Player behind the scenes, the coach said.
