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Raider wrestling traveled on clear roads to Rainier, Washington, for the Sgt. Justin Norton Memorial Tournament on Saturday, where 17 schools competed.

Lake Roosevelt’s seven wrestlers took 14th place with 51.5 team points against competition that included 10 A-level schools and seven B schools.

“It was the highest level of competition we’ve seen all year,” remarked Raider Head Coach Steve Hood.

Kaleb Horn took third in the 113-pound weight class, Steven Flowers took third at 195, and Tony Nichols took fifth at 145. Ida Sue went 2-0 in her exhibition matches against two girls from Rainier. Also wrestling for the Raiders were Yamni Black Bear at 106, and Jon Shelly and Taylor Circle at 120, none of whom placed.

In contrast to previous tournaments on the Raider schedule, which used an eight- or 12-man bracket, the Rainier tournament used a 16-man bracket and wrestled four matches at a time on four mats, instead of two.

Horn was 3-1 in his matches, pinning Kaleb Walton of Mt. Baker and Kalama’s Hoggart, and winning 13-2 against Andrade, of Kiona Benton, to secure his third-place spot 113.

Flowers won 19-2 against Levi Huls, of Castle Rock, and pinned Mabton’s Ramirez before his match against Cisneros, from Forks. Behind the majority of the match, Flowers went into the third period with a 7-6 lead. Cisneros tied things up just before time ran out to force an overtime, and a takedown gave Cisneros the win.

“That was a good match,” Hood said. “That was the kind of experience and situation that we were hoping to get him into. At this point in the season we want tough, challenging matches. It’s always nice to ‘win win win,’ but in reality you improve more from the hard matches.”

Nichols defeated Josh Erme, of Bellevue Christian, 9-2; Williams, of Vashon, 13-5; and Jon Sanchez, of Mt. Baker, 5-2. But he lost 5-3 to Wayne Baker, of Castle Rock, and Jacob Posey, of Kalama. The 3-2 record earned Nichols the fifth-place spot at 145.

Before Saturday’s match, the Raiders went bowling on Friday with wrestlers from Pateros. “It was a good outing for us,” Hood said.

The wrestlers next event is in Kittitas for their tournament on Saturday, then onto the Wilbur-Creston-Keller Mixer in Wilbur on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 6 p.m.