A bruised and somewhat diminished Wolves team still found ways to shine at the Craig Invitational Nov. 8 and 9.
The key word for the Wolves was experience, said head coach Jeffery Rooney. The Craig Invitational’s structure of round-robin wrestling Nov. 8 and tournament wrestling Nov. 9 allowed each of the Wolves to boost their mat time considerably, Rooney added.
“We combined a few classes, moved a few kids around all over there, a lot of good wrestling,” he said. “Everybody walked out of the tournament there with five, six, seven matches. It was a good weekend of wrestling.”
During the tournament phase of the meet, senior wrestler Alex Cano won the combined 120-pound and126-pound bracket after only two matches, one a pin at 3:53 over Thorne Bay’s Quinn Slayton and the second an 11-7 decision over Mt. Edgecumbe’s Trevor Creed to secure his place on the podium. Cano scored the highest place for the Wolves at the Craig meet. All results were drawn from the website http://www.trackwrestling.com.
“He was looking for some wins,” Rooney said.
Freshmen wrestlers Sig Decker and Alissa Heller faced off, as they had the previous week at the Anchorage Christian Schools tournament, this time in a combined 98-pound and 106-pound bracket. Heller pinned Mt. Edgecumbe’s Elizabeth Castillo in only 27 seconds, then fell a round later to eventual champion Seth Packer of Craig. Decker pinned Isaiah Records of Craig in 37 seconds, then fell to Craig’s Timber Burnham 1:33 into the match. In the consolation semifinals, Decker then pinned Castillo and Heller pinned Records to set up the third-place showdown between Wolves. Decker won that match up by pin at 3:35 to take the stand behind Packer and Burnham, first and second place respectively.
The wrestle-back was particularly impressive because of the combined weight classes, Rooney said.
“It doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you only weigh 100 pounds, 10 pounds is ten percent of your weight,” he said.
Freshman Sam Armstrong came within seven points of securing another third place for the Wolves in the 126-pound bracket. After losing his first round match up against Mt. Edgecumbe’s Creed, Armstrong achieved subsequent pins against Mt. Edgecumbe’s Claudia Castillo and Thorne Bay’s Slayton to make it into the consolation finals, where he lost by an 18-11 decision to Petersburg’s Nathaniel Lenhard.
In another close decision in the 152-pound bracket, sophomore Chet Armstrong pinned Metlakatla’s Michael Maki at 5:16, then lost a 13-9 decision against Petersburg’s Logan Turcott to land in the consolation bracket. Once there, he pinned Craig’s Roy Burnham at 4:44 to set a third-place show down with Petersburg’s Bret Martinsen, which he lost in a 10-5 decision.
In the 145-pound bracket, senior Luke Gunderson lost to eventual champion Wyatt Patten of Craig in his opening match, and wrestled back as far as the consolation semi-finals before falling to eventual third-place winner Mitchell Reeves of Craig.
Marquee wrestlers sophomore Roger Miller, senior Devon Miller, and junior Jeffrey Rooney, Jr. stayed in Wrangell with injuries sustained during the highly competitive Anchorage meet from the week before.
The injuries will give the Wolves a chance to recuperate, the elder Rooney said.
“Right after the ACS Tournament, you know, the caliber of wrestling that you’re into up there … it’s the biggest invitational tournament in the state,” he said. “Everybody’s really going for it, so it’s some tough competition. A week off is not a bad thing for anyone.”
The Wolves wrestlers continue their season Nov. 22 and 23 at Ketchikan. They will have next weekend off.
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