Prep Wrestling: Mustangs ride off with Lancer win

Matt Tunseth/Frontiersman

PALMER — Chugiak overpowered a 12-team field to take home the title at the Fourth Annual Lancer Smith Memorial tournament at Palmer High School Saturday.

The Mustangs won four weight classes and placed 15 wrestlers in the top six to outpace second-place East Anchorage.

The Colony Knights were the top Mat-Su team in fourth place despite sending only a small portion of the team’s varsity to the meet.

“They’re taking the weekend off,” Colony junior Josh West said after winning Colony’s only individual title at 140 pounds.

West blanked cross-Valley rival Jake Minturn, picking up a major decision and a perfect 4-0 record in the tournament, which is held each year in honor of Lancer Smith, a longtime Valley coach and mentor who coached at both Colony and Palmer before losing a battle with cancer in the late ‘90s.

The Wasilla Warriors finished one spot behind Colony in fifth, while Palmer was 11th and Houston finished 12th.

The Moose got two wrestlers in the finals, but both fell short. 189-pounder Sam Heindel lost a 7-6 decision to Chugiak’s Chaz Johnson, who rode Heindel for the duration of the third period despite several attempts by Heindel to break free.

“Sam wrestled his heart out,” Palmer coach Dale Ewart said of the match. “He’ll keep his head up.”

Wasilla’s Mack Gagnon had one of only two pins in the finals, finishing off Homer’s Eric Weinfurter in two minutes, 45 seconds.

“I wasn’t expecting the pin,” Gagnon said after finishing off an impressive run though the 152-pound bracket.

“After a while, everthing just started working for me,” he said.

Things also worked out well for Houston junior Justin Crowley, who earned his second tournament win of the season by defeating Michael Odell at 215 pounds. Crowley also won the Houston Invitational, the first major meet of the season.

“It’s even sweeter than the first time,” Crowley said.

The big Hawks wrestler withstood a late Odell charge in the final seconds to earn the top spot on the podium.

“It was hard to ward him off. They called me for stalling with 17 seconds left, but I knew they weren’t going to give him two points in 17 seconds,” he said.

Making the win even sweeter was the fact that it came against a Kodiak wrestler. Both Odell and Crowley are also football players, and the Bears defeated the Hawks on the gridiron.

“Wrestling is more of an individual sport, but being the only one in the finals, I feld I had to do it for our team,” Crowley said.

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

Team scores:

1. Chugiak, 208.5; 2. East, 168.5; 3. Kodiak, 149.5; 4. Colony, 132.5; 5. Wasilla, 114; 6. Kenai, 99.5; 7. Soldotna, 84.5; 8. Eagle River, 83.5; 9. Bartlett, 66; 10. Homer, 63; 11. Palmer, 51; 12. Houston, 41

103 — Matthew Malnoske, East, dec. Issac Wilson, Col, 7-5

112 — Skyler Moore, East, dec. Nick Warton, Chu, 11-6

119 — Nathan Hoffer, East, tech. Chris Osbekoff, Ken, 19-6

125 — Dustin Maxwell, East, dec. Ben Daigle, Hom, 7-3

130 — Jimmy Eggemeyer, Kod, maj. dec. Stephen Kichura, Chu, 11-2

135 — Grant Sullivan, Chu, dec. Wes Mills, Sol, 7-2

140 — Josh West, Col, maj. dec. Jake Minturn, 11-0

145 — Quincy Voris, Chu, dec. John O’Hara, Chu, 11-4

152 — Mack Gagnon, Was, fall Eric Weinfurter, Hom, 2:45

160 — Nick Herron-Webb, East, dec. Marlon Branson, Kod, 10-9

171 — Nolan McBryde, Chu, maj. dec. Jimmy Caswell, Kod, 14-6

189 — Chaz Johnson, Chu, dec. Sam Heindel, Pal, 7-6

215 — Justin Crowley, Hou, dec. Mike Odell, Kod, 5-3

275 — Nathan Strieby, Sol, fall Tyler Taplin, Ken, 1:39