After starting season with 8, Su Valley sends 4 wrestlers to state

WASILLA — Thursday afternoon, Susitna Valley head coach Bryan Kirby made his way into the Alaska Airlines Center on the eve of the 2016 state wrestling tournament. Kirby figured he’d be there alongside his heavyweight, Marshall Pinard, a three-time state placer. But Kirby didn’t expect to be taking three other wrestlers to the state tourney.

Pinard leads a group of four Rams into the ASAA/First National Bank 123A State Wrestling Championships, which start Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

“I didn’t expect four kids. I was hoping for two,” Kirby said Thursday.

While Su Valley will boast a small group compared to other Valley schools, it’s monumental for a program that was recently resurrected. Pinard is making his fourth straight trip to the state tournament, but was the Rams lone participant in two of his first three seasons. In 2014, a pair of Su Valley wrestlers qualified.

Kirby, who led the charge to bring back the Su Valley wrestling program in 2011, said he has talked to just about everyone with long ties to the Talkeenta-area school, and nobody seems to know the last time the Rams had four athletes in a state wrestling tournament.

Kirby said he started the season with eight wrestlers on the roster. That number dropped to six by the end of the year. And now four Rams will wrestle in the state tournament.

Pinard, a senior, and his younger brother Dalton, a freshman, each enter the tournament after each won titles in the Denali Conference Championships in Fairbanks last week. Cooper Stec and Aiden Jolley also reached the finals last week, and qualified for state with runner-up finishes.

Marshall Pinard is the 123A top seed at heavyweight. As a freshman, Pinard placed sixth and state and was the state runner-up as a sophomore. Last season, Pinard was third at state. Pinard is a four-time Denali Conference champion.

This season, Pinard has only one blemish on his record. The lone loss of the season came in the Lancer Smith Memorial finals in November. Lathrop’s Ji Jeong scored a reversal in the final second to edge Pinard 2-1. Kirby said Pinard has learned from the loss.

“I think that loss at Lancer was good for him. It opened his eyes a little bit more,” Kirby said.

Last week, Pinard scored a win by major decision in the semifinals and pinned Galena’s Thomas Tocktoo in the first round of the 285-pound final. Kirby said Pinard is focused on the ultimate prize.

“He’s got one goal on his mind, to stand at the top at state,” Kirby said.

Dalton Pinard upset the top 2 seeds in the 152-pound bracket en route to his Denali Conference title. In the semifinals, Pinard edged Tom Mountcastle, the top-seeded wrestler from Delta, 8-7 in the semifinals.

“It was just good, hard wrestling at the end,” Kirby said.

Pinard pinned the No. 2 seed, Jacob Porritt of Valdez, in the finals. Kirby said Pinard, the No. 4 seed in the bracket, had suffered losses to Mountcastle and Porritt earlier in the season.

Kirby said he’s seeing a newfound excitement about the Su Valley wrestling program at the school, and hopes the Ram can use the recent success to help build the program.

“There’s quite a bit of buzz at our school,” Kirby said.