TRI-STATE INVITATIONAL: Years later, it's still super tough

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

COEUR d’ALENE — It might be Chase Clasen’s first year as the tournament director of the Tri-State Invitational wrestling tournament, which begins its 50th edition today at 10 a.m. on the campus of North Idaho College, but he knows.

Clasen, an assistant coach at NIC who was named the Cardinals' interim head coach last month when head coach Michael Sebaaly was named interim school president, remembers what each and every wrestler is going through.

“I remember it was always super tough,” said Clasen, who finished runner-up in 2014 at 145 pounds at Tri-State during his senior year at Moses Lake High. “At some point, you knew you had to dig deep because each match was going to be really tough, with multiple state champions in each bracket, so the competition was at a really high level.”

That year, Clasen helped the Chiefs to a second-place finish, behind Post Falls. That year was the Trojans' first of four Tri-State titles. Post Falls' most recent title came in 2019, the last year the tournament was held — the 2020 edition was canceled due to COVID-19, as well as both Washington and Oregon starting their seasons later in the spring.

“With Tri-State, you knew as a wrestler that if you placed there, you were set up to do well at state,” Clasen said. “If you could compete against the likes of Post Falls and other good teams in the Northwest, you knew you were going to do well in the postseason.”

The tournament, usually with up to 60 teams, had 50 teams registered as of Friday afternoon.

“Between the weather and having last year off, some teams aren’t here this year,” Clasen said. “It kind of caught some people off guard that it was still happening and some didn’t know if it was going to be a sure thing this year. We’ve got our eyes on a few of these guys to join our program next year, so we’re looking forward to seeing some of these guys compete against other teams.”

There’s no separate tournament for girls wrestling this year.

“There just weren't enough teams that were available to do that this year,” Clasen said. “But it’s something that we’re looking into doing in the future.”

Championship semifinals begin Saturday’s action at 10 a.m., with championship finals tentatively scheduled for 5 p.m.

All-tournament passes are available for $20 for both days, or $5 for the championship finals.

“I’m excited to see how things shake out,” Clasen said. “I’m just excited to see these guys compete against each other.”