Prep wrestling: Colony pins region title

Jan. 28, 2007

By MATT TUNSETH/Frontiersman

SOLDONTA - It's Colony's turn.

Behind the strength of four individual champions, the Knights won their school's first Northern Lights Conference wrestling title Saturday night at Skyview High School in Soldotna, breaking a run of five-straight titles by the Wasilla Warriors.

Colony outdistanced Wasilla in the finals and consolation finals, outpacing the Warriors by a score of 326.5 to 288.5 to win the title of what's recognized as the strongest wrestling conference in the state.

Kodiak finished in third, while the Palmer Moose were fourth.

&#8220I'm extraordinarily proud of these kids,” Colony coach Fred McKenney said following a wild team celebration in the center of the Skyview gym.

Colony got off to a good start in the finals when Chase Montgomery won a 3-0 decision over teammate Charles Coisman to give the Knights their first title of the evening.

Minutes after the duo gave Colony a first and second, Kyle Wilson followed up with a stirring triple-overtime win over Homer's Ben Daigle at 112 pounds.

Wilson led after an escape in the second period, but was called for stalling with just 15 seconds left to send the match into extra time.

After neither wrestler could score a point in the first overtime, Wilson earned an escape in the second to take a one point lead. The Colony sophomore then managed to hold off Daigle's furious escape attempts in the second overtime to earn his first NLC title.

&#8220It was ride or die out there,” Wilson said after the match. &#8220I just couldn't give up.”

Colony's team title was virtually assured going into the finals, as the Knights had held the lead throughout the tournament. But Wasilla showed it wasn't about to give in easily, sending a number of unseeded and younger wrestlers through to the consolation rounds.

After the tournament, Wasilla coach Shawn Hayes said he had nothing but pride in the way his team refused to make Colony's win an easy one.

&#8220Our kids wrestled pretty well,” Hayes said. &#8220They did their job this weekend.”

Based on a strong showing by some of their lesser-heralded wrestlers, Wasilla will send a conference-high 20 wrestlers to next weekend's state tournament at Chugiak High School. Colony will send 18 to the state tourney, where they'll likely be a slight favorite to win the school's first state team title.

Among the biggest surprises for Wasilla was Jon Jensen, who went 2-1 on the tournament and placed second at 145 pounds, despite entering the event as the sixth seed.

Alan Bartelli picked up a win for Wasilla, dominating Colony's Josh West from the get-go for a 12-2 decision. Like Hayes, Bartelli said he was happy with the fight Wasilla put up in trying to defend their title.

&#8220I was pretty proud of our team today,” Bartelli said. &#8220We all stuck together.”

Despite Wasilla's gutsy showing, the night belonged to the Knights.

In addition to taking home the team title, Colony also was honored with the coach of the year award for McKenney and outstanding wrestler award to Hollan Gravely, who pinned Kodiak's Lucas Fried at 135 pounds to win his fourth career NLC title.

Wasilla's Duane Carpenter earned his team's second championship of the night with an impressive 10-3 win over Palmer's Nick Stahler at 140 pounds.

Valley wrestlers were the big story of the tournament, with wrestlers from Colony, Wasilla or Palmer appearing in 12 of the 14 championship matches.

Colony heavyweight James Savage capped off the winning evening for the Knights with one of the tournament's most exciting matches, a 9-7 overtime win over Kenai's Mitchell Canavan.

Savage trailed Canavan until the waning seconds, when a stalling call on Canavan sent the match into sudden-death. Both wrestlers were visibly exhausted, but the big Colony wrestler was able to summon one last bit of effort and muscle the heavier Kenai wrestler to the ground.

After the tournament was over, McKenney said his coach of the year award was nothing more than a reflection on Colony's athletes.

&#8220The coaches like to take all the credit, but this award belongs to the kids,” McKenney said.

The Colony coach said it took a total school effort to win the title.

&#8220The parents, the kids, the administration, this is for everyone. They've all been extremely supportive,” he said.

Reflecting on what the team title means, McKenney said he's amazed with how far his program has come in the past four years. When he took over as coach, McKenney had a ragtag bunch of eight wrestlers.

Now, after 15 years in existence, the Knights will finally be sending a conference championship team to next week's state tournament at Chugiak High School.

&#8220It feels great,” he said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com