TERHARK CUP: Vikings take the fight to the Timberwolves

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

COEUR d’ALENE — When your rival challenges you to a fight, you don’t back down.

Win or lose.

So when Coeur d’Alene senior Alyssa Randles found herself trailing early in the first period of her match, she got to work.

“I was just trusting myself and kept wrestling, win or lose,” Randles said. “I’m never really going to give up, so I just kept going.”

Randles, who notched a late reversal to tie the bout at 126 pounds with Lake City sophomore Brycen Duboise, notched a pin in 3 minutes, 59 seconds after catching Duboise on his back.

“I was excited,” said Randles, who won in her only other TerHark Cup appearance two years ago. “I trusted that I had it and just came through.”

“She just weathered the storm,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jeff Moffat said. “We’ve been telling her for two days that he’s going to make a mistake and we’ll put him on his back hopefully. You can’t relax against her, because she’s really tough.”

Coeur d’Alene jumped out to a 40-9 lead after nine matches en route to a 52-27 triumph over Lake City 52-27 in the annual TerHark Cup dual on Thursday at Lake City High, the Vikings’ 21st straight win over the Timberwolves in the TerHark Cup.

“I knew we were a young team, but wanted to keep the streak going for sure,” Coeur d'Alene senior Dax Larsen said. “I didn’t want to lose it in my senior year. I wanted to keep it going.”

Larsen beat Lake City senior Blaine Leonard by a 14-3 major decision at 138 pounds.

“I was just focused on getting more takedowns,” Larsen said. “I didn’t want to worry about winning or losing, just getting more takedowns.”

Lake City last won the TerHark Cup in 2002, the sixth win over the Vikings in the first seven years of the event.

“It was super important to show them we’re the more dominant program,” Larsen said.

“It means something to us obviously,” Moffat said. “We want to keep winning, but we didn’t talk about it too much. We’re wrestling a lot better than we were at the start of the year. We’re still young and making a lot of mistakes, but Lake City’s a good team and Corey (Owen) does a great job with those kids.”

Justin Hayes (285 pounds), Rocco White (98), Will Rossi (120), Colton Tucker (160) and Rylan Peterson (195) also had pins for Coeur d’Alene.

“We’re still not where we need to be to compete with the top, top teams, but I like the direction we’re headed,” Moffat said. “It was a great win by Alyssa and Dax. I was really happy with Colton Tucker gutting one out there.”

Zach Macdonald (113) and Garrett Leonard (170) had pins for Lake City, which was without coach Corey Owen, who missed the match due to a family emergency.

“It’s hard starting down low (weights),” Lake City assistant boys coach and head girls coach Nate DeLeon said. “We started down 18 points to begin with, and that’s hard to come back from. A lot of those matches were tossups and they just didn’t go our way. We need to learn to fight off our backs and not give up pins.”

Coeur d’Alene will compete in the Van Tuinstra Duals tournament on Saturday at Timberlake High.

Lake City returns to action at the North Idaho Rumble on Jan. 27-28 at Coeur d’Alene High.

220 — William Fairbanks, Cd’A, by forfeit. 285 — Justin Hayes, Cd’A, p. Erik James, 3:01. 98 — Justus Peregrina, Cd’A, by forfeit. 106 — Rocco White, Cd’A, p. Jacob Werner, 4:47. 113 — Zach Macdonald, LC, p. Mason Rogers, 1:11. 120 — Will Rossi, Cd’A, p. Connor Johnson, 1:07. 126 — Alyssa Randles, Cd’A, p. Brycen Duboise, 3:59. 132 — Jackson Duva, LC, d. Boston Spear, 10-6. 138 — Dax Larsen, Cd’A, md. Blaine Leonard, 14-3. 145 — Caden Dutra, LC, d. Gabe Larsen, 7-2. 152 — Nathan Booth, LC, d. Brett Myers, 9-6. 160 — Colton Tucker, Cd’A, p. Wyatt Matthews, 3:33. 170 — Garrett Leonard, LC, p. Gabe Grassel, 2:28. 182 — Sebastian Mosman, LC, p. Ty Paulin, 3:23. 195 — Rylan Peterson, Cd’A, p. Clifford Eddington, 1:24.