A Wild weekend of wrestling at KHS
Photos by JOSH MCDONALD Delilah Wild stands with members of the Kellogg High School wrestling coaching staff, including coach Scott Miller and assistant coach Rodney Cochran, as well as atheltic director Mike LaFountaine after they presented her with flowers at the George Wild Memorial Tournament last weekend.
Wildcat Juddson Hall attempts to roll his Eureka opponent over during their match in the dual portion of the George Wild Tournament.
KELLOGG — The annual George Wild Memorial Wrestling Tournament was this past weekend at Kellogg High School and it was a great two days of wrestling for Kellogg and the other 13 teams who made the journey.
This would be the first edition of the tournament featuring the combined team of Kellogg and Wallace.
Near the beginning of Friday night’s duals, Kellogg High School and the hundreds of fans and wrestlers in attendance took a few moments to honor George Wild.
Wild was the Kellogg wrestling team’s bus driver for some time before he suffered a heart attack while driving the team to a tournament in St. Maries in early 2001.
Nearly 18 years later, his wife Delilah was presented with flowers by former Kellogg wrestler Rodney Cochran (who was in the accident all those years ago) in front of a crowd of people who, like her late husband, appreciated wrestling wholeheartedly.
The surreal moment gave way to more wrestling, where the combined efforts of the Kellogg and Wallace grapplers made for an exciting event.
“We had a decent weekend where we were able to get a lot of kids a lot of mat time which is important,” coach Scott Miller said. “I thought we got really good performances out of the Stepro brothers, Dakota Eixenberger, Judson Hall and Ethan Guy. All five kids won tough matches and came back from adversity, so we were pleased about that. I was also happy with Rob Bublitz who had a good weekend making his debut at heavyweight and Blaine Goodner continues to be very solid for us. Raymond Heely was also a pleasant surprise for us this weekend. All in all, I thought our kids wrestled hard and made progress.”
Kellogg hosts Coeur d’Alene, Lake City and Lakeland on Wednesday night at Andrews Gymnasium.
Below are the individual finishers in each weight class for the Wildcats followed by the total team scores.
98 - Carter Stepro (1st Place, 3-0)
106 - Dakota Eixenberger (2nd Place, 2-1)
113 - Raymond Heely (Consolation Champion, 3-1)
113 - Cody Vergobbi (DNP, 0-2)
120 - Ethan Guy (4-1, 3rd Place)
132 - Judson Hall (3-2, 4th Place)
138 - Kayden Zimmerman (DNP, 1-2)
145 - Mike Sentenay (DNP, 0-2)
145 - Austin Manty (DNP, 0-2)
152 - Tanner Pascoe (DNP, 0-2)
160 - Austin Stepro (4-1, 3rd Place)
160 - Blaine Goodner (Consolation Champion, 3-1)
195 - Carson Hudson (DNP, 1-2)
285 - Myles Hayman (DNP, 0-2)
285 - Rob Bublitz (Consolation Runner-up, 2-2)
TEAM SCORES
1. Orofino 193.0
2. Clearwater Valley 154.5
3. Timberlake 146.5
4. Bonners Ferry 141.5
5. Post Falls 141.0
6. Lakeland 125.5
7. Sandpoint 122.0
8. Eureka 114.0
9. Kellogg 104.5
10. Flathead 97.0
11. Priest River 82.0
12. Lewiston 77.0
13. Potlatch 48.5
14. Grangeville 0.0