By CHERYL PRUETT

For The Beachcomber

Battling horrific road conditions, the Vashon High School Pirates wrestling team last week drove to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, to participate in the Tri-State Wrestling Tournament at North Idaho College. The prestigious competition is the longest continually running invitational tournament in the Northwest. Now in its 36th season, Tri-State features the top varsity wrestlers from Idaho, Washington, Montana and Oregon.

The competition’s huge brackets present a unique challenge for all wrestlers, and it is a gathering of the best of the best. Not many small schools are represented, and it is a feather in the cap of the Vashon program that the team is invited to participate. After last year’s strong showing, Vashon was allowed to bring a full team for the first time.

Unfortunately, day one of action was disappointing for the Pirates. Of the 15 Vashon participants, only three made it out of the first two rounds. Wrestling for Vashon and going two and out were: Ben Angelacos, Payton Bonaventura, Alyx Arteaga, Luke Larson, Shane Williams, Hunter Burger, Preston Petersen, Rodolfo Flores, Cori Williams and Jackson Bard.

The black cloud of bad luck continued to follow stand-out wrestlers and projected winners Chase Wickman and Adrian St. Germain. Both were injured in action the previous Friday, and both were out again in their first matches of the tournament due to injuries. Senior Clyde Pruett managed to bounce back after a first round loss before being ousted in the fourth round.

Bright spots for the mangled squad continue to be the exceptional wrestling of junior Bryce Hoisington at 152 pounds and senior Logan Nelson at 170 pounds. Both went undefeated on day one. Day two of the tournament continued past press time.

Coach Anders Blomgren reported from Idaho that there were a couple of amazing matches for the Pirates.

“Bryce dominating Snohomish in the quarters with his relentless, ferocious style and Logan beating a body builder from Mead with his slick takedowns and supreme conditioning (were of note),” Blomgren said.

Next action for the Pirates will be at their own home tournament, The Rock. Twelve teams will compete in the high school gym on Tuesday, Dec. 29. Wrestling will begin at 9 a.m., and the finals are projected to start at 5 p.m.

— Cheryl Pruett is the mother of two VHS wrestlers.