THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, March 2, 2016
When it comes to wrestling, it is often times good to have strength in numbers.
And for the second time in a row, the muscles of the Post Falls High wrestling team flexed a little more than the rest of the state in the 5A classification.
TEAMS FROM Region 1 (North Idaho) were handcuffed again this year, with only the top three from the regional tournament advancing to the state tournament.
Post Falls advanced 17 wrestlers, placing 10, and won the tournament by 82 points.
By comparison, Columbia of Nampa — which finished second — qualified 21.
As far as champions, Post Falls had four — Ridge Lovett at 98 pounds, Matt McLeod at 120, Tyler Wolf at 132 and Alius De La Rosa at 145. For De La Rosa, it was his fourth straight title.
But with a handful of other placers — including Jordan Grimm (second at 106), Mathias De La Rosa (second at 113), Wyatt Shelly (sixth at 132), Jason Burchell (fourth at 132), Queong Rahman-Smith (fourth at 152) and Brad Noesen (fourth at 195) — the Trojans really put things away on Friday night.
“It was a great accomplishment for Jordan to reach the finals,” Post Falls coach Pete Reardon said of the sophomore. “It was great to see him compete the way he did all weekend.”
Mathias De La Rosa, a freshman, beat Coeur d’Alene’s Kaleb Maciosek by a 3-1 sudden victory in a 113-pound semifinal.
“He was a great surprise and he really showed a lot of guts,” said Reardon of De La Rosa. “Mathias spotted him a point in the match because he didn’t tape his shoelaces, and started the match down 1-0, but found a way to beat him in overtime.”
If there was a surprise champion for the Trojans on Saturday, it might have been McLeod, a sophomore who finished the season 34-9. McLeod finished fourth at the Rollie Lane Invitational, won the North Idaho Rumble and didn’t lose again after that.
“After that dual vs. Centennial (on Jan. 7), I kind of put things into perspective,” McLeod said. “Wrestling isn’t my entire life and I’ve got tremendous support. I just went out and wanted to win and wanted to win the next match. I won a few matches, and I lost a couple. It’s just high school wrestling. After Rollie Lake, it’s been expected for me to win.”
NOT EVEN this year’s state title was expected by many, except those in the wrestling room at Post Falls.
“When the season started, not many people thought we’d be that good,” McLeod said. “We had just phenomenal wrestlers, and won by quite a bit. We really expected this. We expected each and every one of our kids to wrestle great.”
Since the state opted to take away a possibility of a wild card for Region 1 wrestlers starting with the 2015 tournament, Post Falls has won the state title both times.
Strength in numbers helped Coeur d’Alene High — which finished this year’s tournament with six placers — a few years ago when Jeff Moffat coached the Vikings to back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011.
“We had six placers, and wrestled great,” said Moffat, whose team finished eighth. “Those teams ahead of us had 18 wrestlers and we had 12. Taking the wild card away really hurt us. Unless you’re loaded like Post Falls is, you’re not going to compete for a championship. We were hoping to put a couple of guys in the finals, but the kids wrestled hard. We came a long way from the start of the season.”
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.