Moose excited about young wrestlers

PALMER — A few years ago, Palmer High head wrestling coach Dale Ewart wanted to take his program to the next level, so Ewart got involved with the wrestling program at Palmer Junior Middle School.

With the help of the PJMS coaches, Ewart is helping to build a wresting pipeline to the high school. Now, Ewart and the Moose are seeing the impact.

Palmer, as a whole, is still relatively young, Ewart said, but he expects the Moose to make an impact in the Northern Lights Conference.

“I think we’re doing the right things, doing the things we’re supposed to be doing,” Ewart said.

By working with the PJMS staff, Ewart said the coaches, collectively, have been able to keep the athletes going to the Moose high school program and prevent top wrestlers from heading to other programs.

Palmer returns a handful of grapplers who qualified for the state tournament last season. Captains Cole Frohling, Luke Heun and AJ Gentz all placed in the top 4 of the NLC tourney last year. Frohling was second in his class, Heun was third and Gentz was fourth.

Baile Clifford, Nathan Pempek, Mason Cochran and Aaron Molesky were also among the Moose wrestlers to qualify for the state meet last season.

Ewart said he currently has two seniors and six juniors, and the remainder of the squad is made up by underclassmen.

The Moose also have better depth than the teams had in years, Ewart said.

“Right now the only weight class we’re not two deep is 106,” Ewart said.

A strength of the Palmer lineup sits within the classes of 138 pounds and 152.

Palmer has already seen significant success this season, winning the Top of the World Classic in Barrow during the first week of the 4A season.

“I’m really excited about (the team). They’re a great bunch of kids,” Ewart said. “We’re looking forward to having a great end of the season and see what we do at regions and state.”

** Editor’s note: This is part of a three-part series previewing the seasons of the local 4A prep wrestling programs. For the Colony preview, see the adjacent story. For the Wasilla preview, see frontiersman.com/sports.