Tri-State wrestling tournament postponed
The 50th annual Tri-State Invitational, a popular high school wrestling tournament hosted each December by North Idaho College, will be postponed until the 2021 season.
Citing COVID-19 concerns, the college decided to forgo the event in 2020. The tournament was slated to take place this year on Dec. 18 and 19. It is being rescheduled for Dec. 17 and 18, 2021.
“While this decision is being made for the health and safety of all involved, it is still devastating to the wrestling community,” said NIC Head Wrestling Coach Mike Sebaaly.
Each year, the tournament attracts hundreds of high school teams and individual wrestlers from Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington to the NIC campus in Coeur d’Alene.
NIC Athletics Director Bobby Lee said the decision to postpone the tournament is heartbreaking, because it is such an important milestone year.
“The history and tradition of Tri-State calls for any celebration to be done right, and we just can’t do that right now,” Lee said. “We cannot in good faith hold a tournament of this capacity safely in the middle of this pandemic. The safety of all participants is our number one priority.”
Sebaaly said moving the tournament to the spring was not an option due to competing regular season obligations and other, large regional tournaments.
Wrestling season customarily begins in early November for NIC wrestlers. But this year, due to COVID-19, the NJCAA pushed the season out to begin in January, with competitions scheduled into the spring.
Posted: Friday, Sept. 18, 2020
