Stebbins lone Bulldog to place at Tri-State tourney

SANDPOINT — Senior Owen Stebbins was involved in a lot of tight matches, grinding his way to a seventh place finish at 182 pounds, the lone placer as the Bulldogs finished 39th among the more than 60 teams in attendance last weekend at the Tri-State Wrestling Tournament at North Idaho College.

Stebbins won a 3-2 decision over Hermiston, a 2-1 decision over Freeman, also losing 2-1 to Lake City and 1-0 to Hermiston, before finishing the tournament with a pin over Moses Lake at 2:00.

Scout Nash (138) had a strong tourney, reeling off consecutive consolation wins over Post Falls, Tonasket and Lakeside, two of which were pins, before falling 8-6 to a Montana wrestler from Sentinel.

Preston Bunty (152) also had a strong showing, scoring quality wins over Sentinel and Enumclaw, before being eliminated in a 5-0 loss to Reardan.

Bulldog head coach Jake Stark felt like all three of the aforementioned wrestlers stood out in far and away the toughest tournament his team will compete in all season.

“Owen, Scout and Preston all wrestled exceptionally well, with Stebbins being our only placer,” said Stark. “These three young men wrestled tough and with a purpose. I feel they were a good example of what Sandpoint wrestling is all about.”

Andrew Webster (170), Tekoa Mazzare (160), Malachi Mazzare (145) and Tucker Hall (132) were eliminated on the first day of the tourney, a sign of the bracket quality, many of which contain multiple state champions and numerous placers from the four different states represented.

The Bulldogs will send a bigger team to the two-day Best in the West Tournament, which starts Wednesday in Pasco, Washington.