Lewiston duo wins Grangeville Border Days cornhole championship

A Lewiston duo won the cornhole championship at Grangeville Border Days after the sixth annual tournament filled all 32 team slots at Green Acres on July 3. Tournament coordinator Jerime Zimmerman said, "We did have to turn away one team this year," a clear sign the bracket had outgrown its space.

The title came during Border Days’ July 2-4 run, a celebration Grangeville promotes as Idaho’s oldest rodeo and one that Visit North Central Idaho traces to 1912. The 2026 edition carried the theme "The American Way 250 Years Strong!" and packed in daily parades, rodeo performances, the World’s Largest Egg Toss, live music, Art in the Park, a pancake breakfast, vendors and fireworks.

That setting gave the cornhole win more weight than a single weekend result. The Idaho Cornhole League says the sport is spreading rapidly and gives players from Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Montana a place to measure themselves against one another, which helps explain why a Border Days title now carries regional value.

For the Lewiston pair, winning in a full field at a long-running event in Idaho County puts them in a stronger spot on the local circuit. A 32-team tournament that leaves one team on the outside does not hand out easy paths, and a victory there marks the duo as names to watch when competition moves through north-central Idaho again.

Border Days itself remains the kind of broad holiday-weekend stage that can lift a small sport into view. Between rodeo crowds, parade routes and the other festival staples in Grangeville, the cornhole tournament drew enough interest to fill quickly, turning a local bracket into a meaningful test of who can handle pressure when the field is deepest.