Maniacs hosting 14th Annual Wrestling Tournament

The 14th annual Maniac Wrestling Tournament got under way Friday night at Orofino High School.

Teams from Washington, Oregon and Idaho are represented at the tournament. The teams were from Aberdeen, WA; Clarkston, WA; Kooskia; Enterprise, OR; Grangeville; John Day, OR; Joseph, OR; Kamiah; Lewiston; Orofino; Potlatch; Cottonwood; Pullman, WA and Moro OR.

Four mats filled the floor of the gym and they were used continuously Friday evening for the preliminary matches that determined the seating for today's contests.

The Orofino Maniac did well in the preliminaries. Jason Sperber and Andrew Martin won all their matches. The rest of their teammates did well with both wins and losses under their belt. Justin Upton had his ups and downs. The first two matches he was fighting a bloody nose. In the second match he cut his lip. Even with those struggles he hung in there. In his third round match, Justin was able to pin his man and the crowd cheered. Later, he ended up getting three stitches in his lip.

It was a fun filled night. A woman from Enterprise was overheard saying that she enjoys coming to this tournament every year. The coach from the Lewiston Junior Varsity team stated that the tournament was well run.

Saturday's action began at 9 a.m. Watch for more in the next issue of Window on the Clearwater.

Photos: 1. Orofino's Tyler Brooks (right) and Dennis Wilson go head-to-head. 2. Joe Bledsoe of Orofino and Andy Wallace of Enterprise during their match. 3. Justin Upton, Orofino, on top of Justin Lejameyer before the Maniac wrestler was injured. 4. Bert Roberts from Orofino (right) urging Brad Church to bring it on.