Houston's Smith, Redford place at state

HOMER -- A pair of Houston Hawk grapplers placed at the annual small school state wrestling tournament last weekend at Homer High School.

Seniors Travis Smith and Cody Redford each finished in the top five for Houston.

Smith finished third in the 130-pound class.

The unseeded senior defeated Dillingham's Willie Salvo and Petersburg's Richie Deaver to reach the semi-\finals. Smith scored a 10-2 major decision over Deaver.

Glennallen's Alex McMahan pinned smith in the semifinals round to send the Houston grappler to the consolation round.

Smith defeated Nikiski's Justin Tumbaga 8-6 to advance to the third-place match.

Smith secured his third-place medal with a second period technical fall of Richie Diehl of Aniak.

Smith is coming off a third-place performance at the regional tournament. The Houston senior placed fourth at the Anchorage Christian Schools tournament earlier in the season after coming down from the 135-pound class.

"He started at 135 the first couple weekends after coming off of football. He didn't quite want to cut down yet," Houston head coach Doug Janneck said. "Then he placed fourth at the ACS tournament which is usually a pretty good indication where you are going to place at state."

Redford, a fellow senior, finished fifth in the 135-pound class, which had arguably the toughest bracket in the tournament. Of the 16 wrestlers in the bracket, three were returning state champions and Redford faced all three.

"I don't think any other kid can say that," Janneck said. "I don't think I have ever heard of any wrestler facing three state champions in the same state tournament. You usually see them in the finals. You might see two."

After opening the tournament with a win over Kotzebue's Kalen Phillpis, Redford faced defending state champion Hans Hansen, also of Kotzebue. Hansen defeated Redford 8-2.

On the consolation side, Redford posted a pair of major decisions over Bruce Womack of Dillingham and Eielson's Dan Quamberg.

In the consolation semi-finals, Redford faced another returning state champion, Nuk Narcharek of Barrow. Narcharek defeated Redford 5-1.

In the fifth-place match Redford faced his third foe with a state championship on his wrestling resume, Nikiski's Joey Wicker. The match marked the second in as many weeks between the two grapplers.

Redford defeated Wicker to win a region title the week before and continued his streak against the Nikiski wrestler with a 4-2 decision to take fifth place in the tourney.

"Cody pretty much dominated," Janneck said of Redford's low scoring bout for fifth place. "He threw him in the first, but only got a takedown because time ran out. There was not enough time to get near fall points. He got a reversal later in the match."

"Cody wrestled really hard and the matches he lost were all close," Janneck added. "He just had a couple bad breaks. When he wrestled Hanson his hand slipped when he went in for a shot. You can't make mistakes against a wrestler like that, even little mistakes. If you took that 135 class and wrestled again this weekend, it would come out completely different. There were so many good wrestlers, it would come out different every time."

Redford finished his senior season with a record of 22-8.

Redford was one of two Houston region champions. Tran Smyth, a region champ at 160, did not place in the state tournament.

"Cody and Trans weight classes, 135 and 160, were the two toughest in the state," Janneck said. "He had a tough go. He has been one of the top kids all year long and they were gunning to beat him. He lost 2-1 to a kid from Tok who he has battled with all season."

Houston brought 10 wrestlers to the tournament.

"Over all we did well," Janneck said. "We took six freshmen. We had one freshman, Mallory Smith, a match away from placing. It is a really good learning experience. Usually kids are looking to get to state their sophomore year and place after that. Now these kids will be looking to place their sophomore year. They know more of what to expect and that will help them for next year."