COEUR d’ALENE — A lot has changed in the first 44 years of the Tri-State Invitational wrestling tournament, which gets underway this morning at Christianson Gymnasium on the campus of North Idaho College.

And as technology has grown with the event, long gone are the days of relying on kids to run bout sheets to the scorers table.

As the addition of TrackWrestling.com, which allows for live scoring on all six mats today has grown, so has the event according to NIC wrestling coach and tournament director Pat Whitcomb.

“Now that it’s being ran through TrackWrestling, we’re getting some interest from around the United States,” Whitcomb said. “People are able to subscribe and watch every match live. All they’ve got to do is get on there and watch matches as they happen. They’ll know more about what’s going on here sitting at home than if they were here in the northwest part of the gym. We’ve made a habit of trying to make Christianson Gym bigger than it really is and have mats on every inch of the floor on Friday. It kind of adds to the legend of Tri-State.”

And if you’re unable to make it, it could be the next best thing to being there. Due to slick roads and the cancellation of school on Thursday, Kuna and La Grande (Ore.) had to back out of the tournament as school district policy would not allow them to travel to Coeur d’Alene after school was canceled on Thursday, when the teams were to travel to Coeur d’Alene.

“Obviously, it’s a big loss not to have them, but Kuna has been really solid in the past,” Whitcomb said.

Among the favorites in the team standings will be Tahoma, Post Falls, Mead, Moses Lake and Capital of Boise. Post Falls has won the last two Tri-State titles.

“Tahoma has been looking really good, and Post Falls has some good kids back from last year,” Whitcomb said. “For our program, we’re trying to get recruiting here and hold the best tournament possible, and we’re also really happy to have it here this time of the year. It’s nice to have 500 potential students getting a chance to look at the campus.”

Top-seeded locals for the tournament in their respective weight classes include: Lakeland’s Sam Edelblute (98 pounds) and Jared Walker (195), Post Falls’ Ridge Lovett (106) and Coeur d’Alene’s Casey Randles (182).

Lovett won a Tri-State title at 98 last year, and Randles won at 182 last year while at Sandpoint.

“Tri-State can humble you pretty quick,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Jeff Moffat, whose team finished 19th last year. “We’ve got a shot at placing some guys, and our sophomores are making some progress. We’re getting better each time we take the mat. Our guys are fighting really hard, but need to cut down on the mistakes at the end of match. If we do that, we’ll be all right.”

Lakeland coach Rob Edelblute, whose team finished 11th last year, finished as runner-up in last weekend’s Inland Empire Classic at Central Valley High in Spokane Valley.

“We definitely have some kids that could perform well and get into the scoring aspect of things,” Edelblute said. “We’ve got a handful of guys that could fit into the placing picture with a good weekend. Tri-State is such a tough tournament, I’ll be happy if we can get 1 or 2 on the stand.”

All-tournament passes are available for $25 for adults and $15 for students and senior citizens.

TRI-STATE INVITATIONAL SEEDS

98 — 1, Sam Edelblute, so., Lakeland.

106 — 1, Ridge Lovett, so., Post Falls (returning 98-pound champion); 2, Chase Tebbets, so., Mead; 3, Jacob Bennet, jr., Lake Stevens. 4, Buddy Doolin, so., Libby.

113 — 1, William Edelblute, jr., Lakeland; 2, Jordan Grimm, jr., Post Falls; 3, Ryan Stewart, jr., Havre; 4, Chandler Axtell, so., Lakeland.

120 — 1, Blake Haney, so., Mt. Spokane; 2, Bryce Miller, jr., Kelso; 3, Everett Pierce, so., Deer Park; 4, Logan Holt, jr., Freeman.

126 — 1, Alex Cruz, jr., Orting (returning 113-pound champion); 2, Trevor Morrison, so., Colville; 3, Bridger Wenzel, so., Polson; 4, Trent Baun, so., Colville.

132 — 1, Nick Hara, sr., Moses Lake (returning 120-pound champion); 2, T.J. Baun, sr., Colville; 3, Clai Quintanilla, sr., North Central; 4, Jake Howerton, jr., Mt. Spokane.

138 — 1, Dalton Young, sr., Lakeside (Wash.) (returning 132-pound champion); 2, Larry Johnson, jr., Lakeland; 3, Jason Burchell, jr., Post Falls; 4, Bridger Beard, sr., Central Valley.

145 — 1, Parker Fillus, sr., Havre; 2, Braedon Orrino, sr., Central Valley; 3, Braydon Huber, jr., Post Falls; 4, CJ Hendon, sr., Hermiston.

152 — 1, Justin Sipilla, sr., Tahoma; 2, Hunter Cruz, jr., Moses Lake; 3, Justis Anderson, sr., Reardan; 4, Noah Jamison, sr., Priest River.

160 — 1, Dante Springsteen, sr., Bethel (returning 152-pound champion); 2, Zack Stratton, so., Central Valley; 3, Ben Gore, sr., Orting; 4, Bryan Wais, sr., North Central.

170 — 1, Malachi Lawrence, jr., Lake Stevens; 2, Reese Jones, sr., Othello; 3, Ethan Landt, sr., Reardan; 4, Ryan Redford, jr., White River.

182 — 1, Casey Randles, sr., Coeur d’Alene (defending champion, won in 2015 for Sandpoint); 2, Trevor Senn, sr., Mead; 3, Isaac Gomez, so., Tonasket; 4, Owen Stebbins, sr., Sandpoint.

195 — 1, Jared Walker, sr., Lakeland; 2, Kione Gill, jr., Tahoma; 3, Keaton Flannigan, sr., Mead; 4, Conner Krouse, Jenkins (Chewelah).

220 — 1, Jase Stokes, sr., Havre; 2, Evan Barger, jr., Orting; 3, Dagen Kramer, sr., Tahoma; 4, Brad Noesen, sr., Post Falls.

285 — 1, Kenny Marll, sr., Orting; 2, Gabe Sanchez, jr., Deer Park; 3, Chandler Fluaitt, sr., Moses Lake.