On Dec. 15 and 16, when walking into Christianson Gym at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, all spectators could hear was coaches yelling at athletes and parents yelling as well, but this is all for the prestigious award to be a Tri-State Champion. This tournament had roughly 29 teams competing, and the brackets had up to 64 people in each bracket.
The Lakeland Hawks Wrestling team competed and was able to place 12th. LHS had two placers in Junior Dylan Scott and freshman Carson Leonard, each placed fourth.
Leonard was able to make it to the semi-finals before he was taken out in 30 seconds.
He then lost his next match and took fourth, and he was very happy with the results he got.
“Obviously, I thought I could’ve done better, but overall, I thought I did well as a freshman,” Leonard said.
Leonard was facing seniors throughout the whole tournament. His first match was against a senior from Castle Rock High School, and he was able to make a major decision and win 13-5.
Leonard also faced a senior in the quarter-finals, winning via pin right at the end of the match.
The Hawks will be competing in Sierra, Nevada for a tournament, which will be a huge difference from the tournament here.
“It’ll be fun to wrestle kids from California and Arizona. It’ll be a different but fun experience,” Leonard said.
Dylan Scott pinned his way to the quarter-finals before getting pinned in four and a half minutes; he would then have to medically forfeit out of the tournament after injuring his knee in his last match.
“Could’ve done better. It was okay. I could have won my matches and not medically forfeit,” Scott said.
The top three teams are in third place, the Post Falls Trojans, after being in first place after the first day. Second place was the Mead Panthers. The Bishop Kelly Knights won the tournament with 218 points.
The Hawk’s next tournament is in Sierra, Nevada on Dec. 28 and 29.