Tourney time

MAT-SU — Colony head coach Fred McKinney knows his team will be the favorites today when the Northern Lights Conference wrestling tournament gets under way.

And he also knows that means nothing.

“Nobody is going to walk in the gym, give us the trophy, and then get back on the bus,” McKinney said Thursday.

The host Knights are the defending NLC and state champions, and have steamrolled their way through the regular season. They’re the top-ranked program in Alaska’s Class 4A according to wrestling Web site Akmat.org, and have nine individual wrestlers ranked in the top-five in their respective weight classes.

Still, McKinney said he’s taking nothing for granted.

“It’s a funny sport, wrestling,” he said. “You’re only as good as your last match.”

If that’s the case, Colony’s in pretty good shape right now. In its final tournament of the year, at Dimond’s Glenn Vandergaw last week, Colony breezed to a big win over a field that included several of the state’s top programs.

More will be on the line this weekend than bragging rights. The top six place-winners at the conference tournament receive berths in the 16-wrestler state tournament bracket next week. McKinney said he has no set goal of how many wrestlers he’s hoping to advance.

“It could be a lot, it could be a little,” he said. “It just depends on how the kids wrestle.”

Sophomore Charles Coisman will lead the way for the Knights in the smallest weight class, 103 pounds, where he’s ranked first in the state and a good bet to earn his first career conference title. Also ranked No. 1 in the state is senior Levi Krueger at 145 pounds, while Kyle Wilson (119) and Sam Loggins (130) are each ranked second by the Web site.

Wilson is Colony’s lone defending state champion, having won the crown last season at 112.

Other top Knights likely to contend for NLC titles include Zach Beauchamp (125), Aaron Boss (135), Josh West (140), Tyler Milner (171) and Eric Fan (215). Krueger, Wilson, Boss, West and Beauchamp all were place winners at the state tournament last season for the Knights as they won the team’s first wrestling title in school history.

The Knights won’t have the conference or state titles given to them. McKinney said several teams just in the NLC should push Colony plenty this weekend.

“Kodiak’s very tough, Skyview, Soldotna … there’s some good teams out there, he said.

And don’t forget about the team Colony knocked off a run of three consecutive state titles last year.

“Of course, Wasilla is always tough,” he said.

Although perhaps not as dominant as in years past, the Warriors do have some dangerous weapons.

Junior Mike Chafin at 119 pounds, senior Casey Katchinska at 171 and junior Chris Crane at 189 form the nucleus of a Wasilla team that head coach Shawn Hayes has a chance to make some noise over the next two weeks.

“If they wrestle like they can, we should get a lot of kids in the state tournament,” Hayes said.

Chafin is Wasilla’s top returning wrestler from last season, having placed second at state at 125 pounds last year.

But he’s not the only wrestler to have a state appearance under his belt. Senior Kendra Nelson (103), junior David Muzechuk (135), junior Jake Marshall (145), junior Karl Rathbun (160), sophomore James Langendorf (152), senior Beebo Russell (215) and junior Jed Johnson (275) each have state tournament experience after making solid runs through the NLC tournament last season.

The Palmer Moose are the smallest of the three 4A programs in the Palmer-Wasilla area, but that doesn’t mean the Moose don’t pack a punch.

That’s especially true of junior 140-pounder Nick Stahler, who has emerged as a legitimate state title contender this season despite getting fewer than 20 bouts under his belt because of a prolonged run by the Palmer football team into this year’s state football playoffs.

“He’s only got 17 matches so far,” Palmer coach Dale Ewart said.

Stahler has made the most of his limited mat time, rising to No. 2 in the Akmat.org rankings after reaching the finals of the Vandergaw tournament last weekend, losing a tight 8-6 decision to Chugiak’s Qunicy Voris – last year’s state runner-up at 145 pounds.

“I pretty much expected that of him from the get-go,” Ewart said of Stahler, a highly-energetic wrestler who took third at state last season.

Other Moose to watch closely include Sam Heindel and Jake Minturn at 140 and Sam Heindel at 189. Both Heindel and Minturn have reached the finals at multiple tournaments this season.

Bringing 24 of a possible 28 team members to the NLC tournament, Ewart said the Moose are dealing with a couple injuries, but he’s hopeful of getting a decent sized team through to state.

“I think we’re doing pretty good right now,” he said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com.