TRI-STATE WRESTLING INVITATIONAL: Still within their reach

After fighting for the first 43 years to get to the top of the mountain at the Tri-State Invitational, the Post Falls wrestling team isn’t about ready to give up that view just yet.

At least, not if seniors Tyler (T.J.) Wolf and Alius De La Rosa have anything to say about it.

“It’s a pretty high-intensity tournament,” said senior Tyler (T.J.) Wolf, who won at 132 pounds in 2014. “There’s a lot of tough matches and tough kids. I think for us as a team, our intensity level is just to push each other to do our best. For us, our main goal is to compete in each one of those matches and do really well.”

Wolf, seeded sixth in his first Tri-State tournament last year, beat Cam Sorensen of University High in Spokane 5-2 in the championship.

“I just want to go out and wrestle my hardest,” Wolf said. “I know I’ve got a lot of really tough matches this year. It’s tough to win any year. I’m just trying to come out with a win and know that I wrestled my hardest. That’s my main goal.”

Before last year’s win, the Trojans’ previous best finish was third in 2012.

“Oh yeah, we’re excited for it,” De La Rosa said. “I’ve been seeing where people are talking about coming here and beating Post Falls, who can beat who, and that we’re the team to beat. With that target, we’ve got to hold up to that standard and not let anybody catch us.”

“These guys are ready to go,” said seventh-year Post Falls coach Pete Reardon. “The nice thing is that guys like T.J. and Alius, they’ve been around for a while. They’ve competed in a lot of big matches. I think to them, they don’t take for granted it’s a big tournament — it’s a big tournament for anyone — but they’ve been there before. Each of them have won it once, so they’ve got some perspective about the tournament. They’re not freaked out that it’s Tri-State. They’re ready to come out and compete.”

Post Falls opened the season with wins in the Sidney (Mont.) duals tournament, as well as the bracketed tournament — beating Lake Stevens for both titles.

“It was a little nerve-wracking for us because it was a new tournament,” Wolf said. “We really didn’t know what to expect against the kids we were going to compete against. But also, it being the first official dual match and tournament, it motivated us to go and see where we’re at as a team and push ourselves and kind of work from there.”

Both Wolf (138) and De La Rosa (152) went unbeaten on the opening weekend.

“Our team bond is really strong,” De La Rosa said. “We’re a family here and we’re pushing each other all of the time to get better. We’ve all got each others backs and keeping each other accountable, and that played a big part in our success opening the season. There’s nothing for any of our guys to worry about. They just had to go out and wrestle their best, and everyone had their backs. And that pushed us really far.”

De La Rosa was sixth at 138 last year at Tri-State.

“I’m excited for it,” De La Rosa said. “I know there’s going to be some tough matches that I lost last year and kids that I saw last year I’ll see again. My goal is to be undefeated this year. And that doesn’t change (at Tri-State) either. My goal is to win it.”

“They both started wrestling when they were little guys, like 5-6 years old,” Reardon said. “They’ve just worked hard since then. There’s more to it than that. It takes an exceptional kid to continue it all through high school. Each stage is a different challenge, and a lot of kids, if they’re pushed too hard as a kid, they maybe decide not to do it anymore, or hit a wall and just never get better. Both of those guys, they’ve had their ups and downs, but both have worked hard and are really driven. They’re unique. It’s hard to focus on getting better at something like that, continue to work hard and compete at the next level, and both TJ and Alius have done a great job of that.”

Wolf attends KTEC (Kootenai Technical Education Campus) near Rathdrum with the goal of becoming a physical therapy assistant.

“I go through there to help with my health professions there and graduate with my (CNA or Certified Nursing Assistant) certificate,” Wolf said. “It gets me a step into what I want to do, and you’ve got to have that in a medical background. The more background you’ve got, the easier it is to get into those classes.”

As for a future in collegiate wrestling, Wolf is undecided at this point.

“I’m not quite sure yet,” Wolf said. “I’m not sure if I’m going to wrestle in college or not. I was kind of thinking NIC, but not sure yet.”

De La Rosa meanwhile, has a handful of Division I superpowers on his radar.

“I definitely want to keep going, but haven’t decided on where yet,” De La Rosa said. “Oregon State, Boise State and Virginia Tech have some interest, but I haven’t really decided yet.”

After graduation, De La Rosa wants to pursue a career in business marketing.

“I just have an interest in clothing and advertising,” De La Rosa said. “I like seeing what the latest trend is.”

In order to relax before and after wrestling, De La Rosa competes against his brother, Post Falls freshman Mathias, in whatever they can find.

“I’m always competitive, especially my brother and I,” Alius De La Rosa said. “We’re playing Ping Pong all the time, video games, whatever. We just love competing against each other.”

With three more dual wins over the weekend, the Post Falls team has kept its momentum on track throughout the offseason.

“We’re in a good spot right now,” Wolf said. “But we can only get better from here. We need to continue to work hard, no matter what the challenge is.”

And with all those close calls in recent years, the team is still enjoying

“It’s really an honor to be a part of this team,” De La Rosa said. “It’s something we’ve worked hard for, and I think we deserve. But we’ve got to keep getting better. We can’t slack off now.”

“I think we’re ready to compete,” Reardon said. “It’s still early, but they really competed well that first weekend and I think we’ll be ready to go.”

Wrestling begins on Friday at 10 a.m., with championship quarterfinals tentatively scheduled for 7:15 p.m., according to tournament director Pat Whitcomb, and will resume at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Semifinals are set for noon, with championship finals at 5 p.m.

“We’ll go as soon as we can get everything going,” Whitcomb said. “It kind of depends on the flow of things.”

Whitcomb added that Post Falls could contend for the title, as well as Lake Stevens or Moses Lake.

“Right now, looking at them from last year and winning the Sidney tournament, I think they’re the front-runner,” Whitcomb said. “Lake Stevens and Moses Lake are really good, and Havre’s going to be really good. I think once they get to mixing it up, it should be a good tournament.”