COEUR d’ALENE — Out since early in the season, Coeur d’Alene High junior Gavin Sherar made his return to the mat on Wednesday night count.

Trailing 5-4 late in the third period, Sherar forced overtime with a takedown, then won his bout with Lake City’s Ricky Thomas with a takedown.

“I wasn’t very nervous, but it was a hard comeback coming off an injury,” said Sherar, who had been out since the Tri-State Invitational with a lower back injury. “It was a tough match, and surely a test of determination and guts to fix my condition and get back in there strong.”

Thomas gained the lead with a takedown of his own with a little over a minute remaining in the third period.

“I just needed to battle it out,” Sherar said. “I was about to throw up, but knew I had to keep battling.”

For Sherar, it was his first start in the 24th annual TerHark Cup, which went to the Vikings 47-30 over the Timberwolves at Lake City High.

“It was big,” Sherar said. “I’m glad the hard work is paying off.”

Coeur d’Alene won six straight matches to build a 31-3 lead.

“The momentum kind of changed with Gavin Sherar at 138 pounds,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jeff Moffat said. “They forfeited to Payton Keough (at 132), who’d been injured for the last five weeks and we were hoping to get him a match, and they thought they probably had a better matchup with Gavin. And Gavin hadn’t wrestled since Tri-State, so we didn’t know what kind of gas tank he had and up to making weight and respond, and he did a heck of a job. All of our guys wrestled hard — and so did they — (Lake City coach) Corey’s (Owen) got a good lineup. It was fun. I just liked the way we wrestled tonight. We were aggressive and scoring points and continue to get better. We’re starting to get real good at the end.”

“It was an entertaining dual, but didn’t come out the way we wanted,” Lake City coach Corey Owen said. “One of the forfeits was a strategic move when we bumped our 132 pounder up to 138 thinking we could sneak a win in there. I thought we had a better chance, and a match we could have won. The breaks didn’t go our way tonight, and we got outwrestled. Coeur d’Alene battled their butts off tonight. Hats off to them and their program. There’s a reason they win this every year.”

Hunter Schueller (126 pounds), Garrett Ashby (152) and Gunner Giulio (160) had pins for Coeur d’Alene.

It was the 17th straight Cup win for Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s bragging rights for the city,” Moffat said. “They want to win, we want to win. We try not to put too much emphasis on it to keep our kids loose, but it’s something to both teams for sure. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t mean anything to us. It’s neat and you like a close dual like that in a rivalry, you’ve got to have some close matches. They’ve got a heck of a team this year.”

Owen Hughes got Lake City within striking distance with a pin at 285, cutting the deficit to 35-27.

“Owen, he just never stops coming,” Owen said. “His relentless attitude at heavyweight gets him a ton of wins. It’s tough for kids of that size to keep that pace, and he’ll wear you out. It was a 0-0 match, and his pace won it for him tonight. I’m proud of the kids, we just came up a little short tonight.”

120 — Devin Sorrelle, LC, d. Rome Borley, 4-0. 126 — Hunter Schueller, Cd’A, p. Nate Garner, 1:18. 132 — Payton Keough, Cd’A, by forfeit. 138 — Gavin Sherar, Cd’A, d. Ricky Thomas, 7-5. 145 — Nolan Randles, Cd’A, md. Kaleb Strickler, 11-2. 152 — Garrett Ashby, Cd’A, p. Porter Howard, 2:37. 160 — Gunner Giulio, Cd’A, p. Seth Nutting, 5:37. 170 — Matthew Whitcomb, LC, d. Mitchell Moffat, by injury default, 182 — Nick Dohm, Cd’A, md. Zane Monaghan, 16-5. 195 — Mahlon Clark, LC, by forfeit. 220 — Connor Dremann, LC, p. Jackson Washington, 1:32. 285 — Owen Hughes, LC, p. Jackson Kohal, 3:44. 98 — Conner Reeves, Cd’A, by forfeit. 106 — Caden Hess, LC, d. Dylan Moffat, 4-0. 113 — Dom Jessos, Cd’A, by forfeit.