Lancer's Legacy

PALMER — When it comes to the heavyweight class, Colony High wrestling has the Wright stuff.

Renn Wright paced the four-time defending state champion Knights to a competitive fourth-place finish at this weekend’s Palmer Lions Lancer Smith Memorial Tournament at Palmer High School. Wright remains undefeated at 5-0 after pinning Bartlett’s Caleb Green in 3:25 to claim the 285-pound title.

Wright earned his third pin of the tournament with an impressive lateral drop throw that put Green on his back in the second period.

“Yeah, I was looking for that,” Wright said. “He was coming in low and I knew he was going to push into it.”

Once he had his man facing the ceiling, “I just squeeze as hard as I can, give everything I got,” he said.

Wright is one of the senior leaders on a squad that doesn’t know anything except winning state team titles. He placed second in last year’s state tournament, and said he’s hungry to be a champion this season.

“I have a lot of expectations for myself, but I’ll get there,” he said, adding being the defending champs makes Colony a target at every tournament and dual. “It keeps you pretty sharp. You have to stay on your toes, otherwise these guys will come out and get you.”

Keeping Colony sharp this season is cross-Valley rival Wasilla, who finished a close fifth in the tournament to the Knights. Service topped all teams in a competitive upper bracket with 199.5 points, followed by East Anchorage (186), Bethel (181), Colony (168) and Wasilla (160). Host Palmer placed 11th with 74 points and Houston rounded out the Valley contingent at the 27-team invitational in 19th place with 43 points.

Wasilla and Colony each placed three wrestlers in Saturday’s finals. Along with Wright, Colony’s Kyle Boss won at 152 pounds and Luke Faulkner was second at 135, losing a close 4-2 decision in overtime to Dominic Taus of Eagle River.

For the Warriors, Tyler Adams had his arm raised at 130 pounds after dominating Jacob Lunsford of Service in an 11-2 major decision. Junior Abe Fox came out on the wrong end of a gutsy 5-3 decision to Dillingham’s Jared Miller, who remains undefeated at 13-0 on the season.

One of the most anticipated matches of the finals saw Wasilla’s Jake Johnson, who entered the match 13-0, against Stephen Ellis of Service, who was also undefeated. Ellis won in a 14-5 major decision that was much closer than the final score. Ellis took an early 2-0 lead after the first period, and extended that to 8-0 in the second after taking Johnson down and scoring back points. But Johnson would score a reverse to end the period and an escape to begin the third to cut the lead to 9-3. Another takedown had the margin at 9-5. But with time running out, Johnson allowed Ellis to escape in hopes of getting another takedown. But the Eagle River wrestler held off Johnson and scored a takedown with back points of his own in the waning seconds of the match.

For the Warriors, the Lancer Smith invite was a good early season measuring stick, said coach Shawn Hayes, especially Colony.

“They’re missing some and we’re missing some, so it’s pretty close,” he said.

Hayes said he was impressed with the performance of Adams, who had a strong tournament and the team’s only individual championship.

It was nearly two titles for Wasilla, as Fox took an undefeated Miller, who is also a two-time defending state Class 3A champion, to the limit. That included impressive work from the top position, riding Miller the entire second period.

“I thought I was close to scoring a couple times there,” Fox said. “I just made some mental mistakes. I almost got him to his back twice, but the ref called it each time.”

With the top five teams all at 160 points and above, Colony head coach Dave Booth said it looks like the Knights will have to earn it if they want to win a fifth straight title.

“That’s the only goal we’re shooting for, what we aim for at the end of the year,” he said. “The only kids (in the program) that don’t know what it’s like to win the state championship are our freshmen.”

With rumblings that Service, East Anchorage and Wasilla may all be knocking on Colony’s door, Booth said his Knights are focused on one thing — themselves.

“All I can say is we’re working as hard as we can,” Booth said. “Really, we’re not particularly worried about Wasilla. We’re just worried about what we can do. That’s it. If we win, I could care less who takes second. If we worry about Wasilla, North Pole will beat us. If we worry about North Pole, then Lathrop will beat us. We’ve got to be better than everybody.”

For Palmer, head coach Dale Ewart said he’s impressed with the parity in the Class 4A ranks this year and expects the state title won’t already be a foregone conclusion before the finals.

“It’s going to be close all year,” he said. “I think there are four or five really good teams in the state this year. It’s going to be pretty competitive.”

Lancer Smith Memorial

Wrestling Tournament

Friday and Saturday, Palmer High School

Team scores

1. Service 199.5, 2. East Anchorage 186, 3. Bethel 181, 4. Colony 168, 5. Wasilla 160, 6. South Anchorage 148, 7. Lathrop 126.5, 8. Valdez 120, 9. Kodiak 89, 10. Dillingham 87.5, 11. Palmer 74, 12. Kenai Central 64.5, 13. Eagle River 61, 14. Bartlett 53, 15. Chugiak 51.5, 16. (tie) Craig, Skyview, Sitka 48, 19. Houston 43, 20. West Anchorage 36.5, 21. Homer 36, 22. Anchorage Christian 27, 23. Soldotna 23, 24. Dimond 16, 25. (tie) Aniak, Glennallen, Tok 0.

Championships

103 pounds — Hammond, South Anchorage pinned Steffensen, Kenai Central 1:53; 112 — Pleasant, Bethel pinned Marquez, East Anchorage 3:31; 119 — Miller, Dillingham dec. Fox, Wasilla 5-3; 125 — Achman, Lathrop pinned Sturgill, Bartlett 1:29; 130 — Adams, Wasilla maj. dec. Lunsford, Service 11-2; 135 — Taus, Eagle River dec. Faulkner, Colony 4-2 OT; 140 — Brodie, Kodiak dec. Ace, Valdez 4-2; 145 — Downing, East Anchorage dec. Chavez, Bethel 12-4; 152 — Boss, Colony dec. Liu, Bethel 8-7; 160 — Allen, Valdez dec. Castle, Chugiak 4-1; 171 — Wyatt, Homer dec. Weise, Lathrop 3-1; 189 — Wilson, East Anchorage dec. Thain, Chugiak 5-2; 215 — Ellis, Service maj. dec. Johnson, Wasilla 14-5; 285 — Wright, Colony pinned Green, Bartlett 3:25.

Third place

103 — Willard, East Anchorage dec. Ottum, South Anchorage 9-0; 112 — Groeneveld, Valdez dec. Burris, Kodiak 7-5; 119 — Hogenson, South Anchorage dec. Mockta, Service 7-2; 125 — Lacey, Service dec. Patrick, Sitka 10-8; 130 — O’Brien, Bethel dec. Wilson, Dillingham 4-1; 135 — Kugo, Bethel dec. Zimmerman, Lathrop 3-0; 140 — Lieb, Bethel dec. Agosti, Kenai Central 4-1; 145 — Johnson, Wasilla dec. Markson, South Anchorage 3-0; 152 — Malnoska, East Anchorage dec. Banning, Service 3-0; 160 — Skieens, Service dec. Wolf, Colony 11-8; 171 — Deaton, Valdez pinned Hamilton, East Anchorage 4:33; 189 — Wright, Colony dec. Brandon, Dillinham 5-4; 215 — Robb, Bethel dec. Gudshinky, Lathrop 6-3; 285 — Yeager, Bartlett dec. Jeffords, Service 6-3.

Fifth place

103 — Girard, East Anchorage dec. Hannah Skyview 3-1; 112 — Hendrix, Lathrop dec. Freed, Service 9-8; 119 — Rake, Valdez pinned Llorente, Kodiak 2:25; 125— Janorschke, Skyview dec. Miller, Wasilla 7-4; 130 — Wenzl, Chugiak dec. Hanley, Soldotna 7-5; 135 — Serna, Wasilla dec. Schlagel, Dillinham 7-6; 140 — Hanson, Sitka pinned Lounsbury, Kodiak 4:07; 145 — Sterling, Kenai Central pinned Orzalli, Service 3:51; 152 — Pena, West dec. Rolf, Dillingham 1 1-8; 160 — Amore, Anchorage Christian default Wiggins, East Anchorage; 171 — Dennehy, Sough Anchorage forfeit Such, Colony; 189 — Morrison, Chugiak dec. Makitrin, Wasilla 9-5; 215 — Frohling, Palmer pinned Farber, Colony 1:55; 285 — Peralta, East Anchorage forfiet Rich, Palmer.