COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – After taking first at their home tournament last week, the Othello Huskies traveled to the 51st annual Tri-State Wrestling Tournament in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, taking ninth place in a tournament of nearly 60 teams from Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana.

“The kids were excited, they know how tough Tri-State is and I think they were up for the challenge,” Othello Head Coach Rudy Ochoa II said. “They wanted to test themselves, and they were pretty dialed in all week.”

The Huskies have competed in Tri-State each season since 2016, with this year’s ninth place finish being the highest at Tri-State since Ochoa took over the job.

“There are top teams from Oregon, Montana and Idaho along with Washington, and it’s just tough wrestling,” Ochoa said. “We’re state placers, and it’s seeded out so far. We had a kid who took fifth at state, a state placer, facing a state placer in the first round of the tournament. You don’t see that at every tournament… Even when you lose, and you go down below, you’re facing a state placer.”

The two-day competition began on Friday morning at North Idaho College, with wrestlers competing against past state champions in the early rounds. With a contingent of strong wrestling squads competing at Tri-State year in and year out, participants get exposure to other wrestlers with postseason experience.

“It exposes us to things we need to work on, things that maybe we thought we were doing well and maybe we weren’t doing as well as we thought, it helps a lot,” Ochoa said. “Hopefully it helps build their confidence more than defeat them.”

Othello seniors Josue Solorio (220) and Forrest Roylance (138) placed sixth and eighth in their respective weight classes. Solorio left last year’s Tri-State tournament with an injury suffered in his first match, and Roylance was unable to compete in the tournament last season due to an injury.

“Seeing (Solorio) on the podium and seeing him in the semis, it was nice,” Ochoa said. “Even though it’s not as high as he wanted to be on the podium, it was nice knowing where we were last year and what he was able to battle through.”

“Last year (Roylance) was a state-caliber guy, placed at state last year, but he was back right after Tri-State last year,” Ochoa said.

Junior Isaac Campos and freshman Daniel Gonzalez both placed in the 113 weight class, finishing fourth and eighth respectively. In total, five of the 15 Othello wrestlers who competed at Tri-State ended up placing.

“Isaac made it all the way to the semis, and he lost to a really tough Orting kid,” Ochoa said. “In his third/fourth place match, he lost a non-stop action type match to a Flathead kid. Flathead ended up winning the whole tournament.”

“(Gonzalez is) the first freshman that I’ve coached that placed at Tri-State,” Ochoa said. “That was exciting for us as a staff and our program. We had three freshmen in our lineup, one was a match away from making it to day two, two freshmen made it to day two and one of them placed.”

Senior Terrill Freeman placed sixth in the 195 weight class.

“Terrill Freeman, he wrestled really well,” Ochoa said. “He actually lost in overtime to the 3A state champion in his fifth/sixth place match after being pinned by him in the quarter. Even though he didn’t end up on top I hope there was satisfaction for him in seeing that it was a close match.”

Even with a top-ten finish, Ochoa said the Huskies can improve on their finish at Tri-State.

“We’re happy with top ten, but I think our whole program knows that this is just a halfway point and we have end-of-the-year goals,” Ochoa said. “This is just one stepping stone toward what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Other Basin results from Tri-State

Moses Lake: T-26th place (63 points)

Freshman Ian Garza (106): 4th place

Junior Dayton Regan (152): 7th place

Royal: 53rd place (17 points)