To find a good true test, sometimes a team has to get on a school bus and got find some competition.

If a team is lucky, sometimes it comes to them.

IN WRESTLING, for the local teams at least, there isn’t many weekends off during the course of the season.

Tough tournaments each weekend, sprinkled with a few duals here and there, sometimes it’s just a task to get everyone to the end of the season in one piece.

Most area teams will take part in the annual River City Duals tournament, which concludes today at Post Falls High.

Last weekend, most were at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa — site of this year’s state tournament — for the Rollie Lane Invitational.

Post Falls was second, Coeur d’Alene third and Lakeland fifth, just a point behind Nampa.

Kuna won the tournament.

“It really came down to those last couple of rounds and the consolation semifinals,” Post Falls coach Pete Reardon said. “And it was interesting to watch it unfold. We started (Saturday) with six wrestlers on top (in the championship bracket) and finished with four placers. We had three or four guys close to placing. We’re really proud of how everyone competed and the progress we’re making this season.”

If it sounds familiar, Post Falls had one finalist in the Tri-State Invitational, had Isaac Jessen win his match, then had to wait it for other matches to unfold to win a fourth team title at the tournament since 2014.

Lakeland finished 10th in the Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno on Dec. 29, returned home to Rathdrum, then traveled back to Nampa for Rollie Lane on Jan. 2.

“There was definitely some weight classes that were tougher in Reno,” Lakeland coach Rob Edelblute said. “I was thinking Sierra was a little tougher than Rollie, but there’s so many weights that are just stacked with great wrestlers. Sierra might not have as many stud wrestlers, but both are grinding tournaments.”

Then again, the tougher the better, right?

“That’s why we like coming to these high quality tournaments,” Edelblute said. “We want to get our kids competing at a high level by the time state comes around.”

Lake City, which already owns a dual win over Post Falls, finished fifth in the Inland Empire Classic at University High last weekend.

“Our juniors and seniors are starting to hit their peak and wrestling really well,” Lake City coach Corey Owen said.

AREA SCHOOLS will get a good test of where they are after wrestling anywhere from seven to nine matches in the River City Duals tournament, which concludes today at Post Falls High.

No matter where you are, or what you do, someone is going to push you to be better.

That’s pretty clear around here.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.