POCATELLO — As soon as the final match at Holt Arena ended, Jeff Gardner was soaked. Snake River’s coach had won his second 3A state wrestling championship and a record 12th for the Panthers in their history.

His team doused him in water to celebrate.

“I didn’t want them to do that, but it’s worth it,” Gardner said with water dripping off his nose.

Snake River scored 246 points to finish 56 ahead of second-place Fruitland and 24.5 shy of the 3A record of 270.5 (Shelley, 2007).

Even before the final whistle sounded, Snake all but wrapped up the title.

The championship round featured five Panthers wrestlers. Four of them went home state champions, and in total 11 wrestlers placed in the top six.

Still, Gardner didn’t exhale until the very end.

“I have a hard time believing people when they say we have it sewed up,” Gardner said. “I stress out the whole time. I told my kids we just gotta keep winning matches, and they did. You worry about getting the kids there and them not performing, but this whole tournament ... I can’t say enough about them. They did what they had to do.”

Snake River’s four state champions are 4-time winner Treyton Nilsson (113, senior), junior Wyatt Vogler (160), senior Cutler Howell (170) and sophomore Payson Anderton (182).

Senior Tyrel Jensen (220) took second, and senior Shad Walker (160) and junior Porter Thomas (285) each claimed third.

The title is Snake River’s first since 2011.

“They stepped up big,” Gardner said. “It was awesome; it was fun.”

In 5A, Highland held strong to finish fourth despite having a lone individual champion and two semifinalists.

The Rams totaled 131.5 points, many of which came through the consolation bracket.

Gage Swanson (98) finished fifth, Dekker Anderson (106) took third, Nate Labbee (113) placed sixth, Konnor Cordingley (120) finished third and Denver Dobson (160) took fourth.

“Kids came through in the consolation,” said Highland coach Kolby Cordingley. “Sometimes they’ll have those goals that are higher than that and it’s kind of one of those where they’ve got to readjust quick. (When) you’re dealing with kids this age that’s a hard thing to do and I was proud of them.”

Junior 170-pounder Tucker Leavitt capped off his undefeated season with a win in triple overtime of the championship match to win his second straight 5A state title.

The Rams claimed their seventh consecutive academic state title with a team GPA of 3.43.

After a promising day one, Pocatello fell from fourth place to finish fifth with 150 points, 40 shy of fourth place and a trophy.

“We had a good chance to walk away with a trophy and just here and there, here and there (it) wasn’t quite enough,” said Poky coach Todd Praska.

Of the Indians’ six semifinalists, two made it through to the championship round.

Top-seeded Hunter Roubidoux (113) lost in the finals to Lakeland’s Larry Johnson, and Kolby Smith, who was a six seed, fell to Preston’s Keiton Keller after beating the No. 2 seed and No. 3 seed to reach the finals,

“Hunter did what he could do,” Praska said. “Kolby had the tournament of his life so, you gotta be proud of him.”

No. 1 seed Luke Kirby (132) was defeated in the semifinals and finished fourth and 2 seed Alex Iszler (220) lost in the semis and suffered an injury in the fifth-place match.

“It was just a sad day for me all around,” Praska said. “Hard to see a senior go down like that.”

It’s a bitter end to a long season, but Praska said his kids are already looking ahead to next year.

“Everybody that I saw and talked to after their wins or losses today in the medal matches seemed really hungry for next year,” he said. “They want it. You can’t ask for much more than that.”

Blackfoot (120) and Preston (96) each crowned a state champion and finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the final standings.

Preston senior Keiton Keller (120) defeated Poky’s Smith to win the title, and Blackfoot’s Lane Hunt (126) beat Larimie Asher of Middleton.

American Falls (152) finished fifth in 3A, 15 points behind fourth-place Weiser. Shelley (120.5) took sixth and Marsh Valley finished 13th.

In 2A, defending champion Malad tied for seventh with 108 points. North Gem finished tied for 14th, Grace was 17th and Aberdeen edged Firth for 18th. West Side finished 25th, Bear Lake finished 29th and Soda Springs finished 32nd.