Defending champs will challenge for another crown

WASILLA — Wasilla is the defending state champion and has won five of the last nine 4A state titles. This season, the Warriors will be right back in the hunt for another crown.

The Warriors, who return a pair of state champions and seven grapplers who place in the state tournament last season, are off to a great start. Wasilla won the first 4A meet of the season, the Bob Bailey Invitational at Chugiak High, and finished second in the Lancer Smith Memorial at Palmer High last weekend.

Wasilla was edged in the Lancer Smith by Service, last season’s state runner-up. Wasilla led throughout the tourney and into the finals, but the Cougars did just enough during the final round to beat Wasilla by only 4.5 points in the team standings.

State powers Wasilla and Service should probably get used to these races to the top of the team standings.

“I think we’re going to battle all season. They have a tough lineup, and we’re pretty tough,” longtime Wasilla head coach Shawn Hayes said.

Hayes said he feels the starting lineups of both teams are pretty even and it will be interesting to see what type of depth each program develops during the regular season. Teams can currently use only one athlete as a scoring wrestler per weight class. But that number grows to two during the region championships.

Defending state champions Abe Fox and Tyler Adams lead the Warriors into the 2011-12 season. Fox, who won his first state title at 119 pounds last year, won the 126-pound class at the Lancer Smith last week.

Adams, who won his crown at 130, started off his season by winning the 145-pound class at the Bob Bailey.

“They’re wrestling really tough,” Hayes said of the defending champs. “I know they have set their goals high again this year.”

Shannon Carpenter, Bryce Serna and Ryan Pomrenke are other veterans who placed in state last season. Carpenter was third at 103, Serna finished fifth at 135 and Pomrenke was fourth at 285.

Wasilla also has two other 2010 state qualifiers who are currently injured, Quace Wright and Yuriy Makitrin. Both are also football players and suffered significant injuries during the football season. Hayes said the potential timetable for a return is unknown for both wrestlers, but both would greatly help Wasilla’s goal of winning another state title.

Wright, a transfer from Colony, won a Northern Lights Conference title at 189 last season, and was third in state. Makitrin finished as the NLC runner-up at 171 and sixth at state.

Nate McKimson, an NLC runner-up last year, is also back. McKimson has won back-to-back tournaments to start this season.

“He’s wrestling really well,” Hayes said of McKimson, who is currently at 138 pounds.

Ryker Steiner another NLC runner-up last season, started his season strong by winning his weight class at the Bob Bailey.

Wasilla also returns Connor Minnick, Chance Boatman and Adam Akelkok. Minnick and Akelkok were third in the NLC meet last year. Boatman was fourth at the NLC meet.

Warriors host

North/South

Wasilla is hosting the North/South Invitational this weekend. There is a duals meet on Friday, with eight teams participating. A one-day bracketed tournament is scheduled for Saturday. The tourney, with the 16-man bracket, will include programs such as Palmer, Colony, Wasilla, Service, West Valley, Chugiak and South Anchorage.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.