Ultimate Warriors

WASILLA — With Wasilla and Service trading the top spot in the teams’ standings back and forth throughout the two-day 4A state tournament, one match really seemed to stick out as teams headed into the final round Saturday evening.

Wasilla’s Tyler Adams versus Service’s Jacob Lunsford in the 130-pound final.

Even though it appeared Wasilla had mathematically clinched the team title earlier in the championship round, Adams put the exclamation point on the Warriors’ victory.

Adams scored a 9-2 win over Lunsford to win his first state crown and help the Warriors win the team title during the ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Wrestling Championships at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla.

After the match, Adams said the win feels twice as sweet.

“I kind of do. Not only did I win an individual championship, the team’s now won the state championship,” Adams said. “It feels great.”

Junior Abe Fox and senior Jake Johnson also won individual titles to help the Warriors win their first state crown since 2005 and fourth in eight years.

“It feels amazing,” Johnson said after winning the state title in the 215-pound class. “I’m so proud of all of us, we’ve all worked so hard.”

The 2010 title was a virtual tug-of-war between the Warriors and the Cougars. The rivals traded the lead back and forth throughout the day Friday, and Service used a strong first-day effort to carry an 11-point lead into the second day of the meet.

“All weekend for both Service and us, it’s been ups and downs,” Wasilla head coach Shawn Hayes said. “Last night as we were leaving, we were down by 11 points. We were pretty nervous there. One point (Friday) we were actually in fourth place.”

But on Saturday, the Warriors scored key wins on both sides of the bracket to jump ahead and stay there.

“We did battle,” Hayes said. “That’s what we talked about (Saturday) morning. We told them, ‘You guys want to win a state title? You’re going to have to wrestle like it.’ We wrestled really well.”

With three Warriors already in the final round, Wasilla moved seven grapplers into the semifinals of the consolation bracket. Four of those wrestlers won their way into the third-place matches.

“We started off a little slow, but we came back in the end,” Adams said.

Shannon Carpenter (103 pounds) and Derek Johnsen (145) finished third for the Warriors; Nate McKimson (119) and Ryan Pomrenke (285) placed fourth; Bryce Serna (135) was fifth; and Jentry Diederich (140) and Yuriy Makitrin (171) placed sixth.

Service also had five wrestlers in the consolation semifinals. Three placed fifth and two were sixth.

Wasilla held an 18.5-point lead heading into the finals. The Warriors had Fox, Adams and Johnson wrestling. Service had four athletes in the finals — Alex Nanez (112), Conrad Lacey (125), Lunsford and Stephen Ellis (189).

The match that officially clinched Wasilla its title was Lathrop’s Andrew Hendrix’s 10-2 win over Nanez at 112.

“We knew up by 18.5, going into the finals, the most they could get for a win was a pin in the finals, six points,” Hayes said. “When that 112-pound match was over, we knew, no matter what we’d be up by a half-point.”

Regardless, Adams wanted to take care of business at 130.

Lunsford took an early 2-0 lead in the match with a takedown, but Adams used a reversal with 20 seconds left in the first period to tie it at 2. Adams led 4-2 heading into the second period. In the third, Adams scored near-fall points to ice his victory.

Fox, who was in the state finals for the second time in three years, scored his first state title with an 8-6 over Ross Sanford of Ketchikan. Fox sealed his win with a takedown late in the third period.

Johnson scored a 16-4 major decision over Chugiak’s Garrett Morrison in the 215-pound final.

A pair of Colony Knights also had a pair of wrestlers in the finals. Senior Kyle Boss won his first state championship with a 3-1 overtime win over Chugiak’s Pat Mullet in the 152-pound final. Tied at 1, Boss shot in with a double leg immediately during the extra period, and scored the takedown to get the win. In the heavyweight final, Bartlett sophomore Caleb Green edged Colony senior Renn Wright 3-2.

The four-time defending state champion Colony Knights had only two grapplers in the finals, but four wrestled in the consolation finals. Luke Faulkner, Quace Wright and Ty Farber each finished third for the Knights. Faulkner, one of the top wrestlers in his weight class throughout the season, edged Palmer’s LJ Leppanen 3-1 in third-place match of the 135-pound match. Wright, a freshman, wrestled his way to third place, thanks in part to an 8-3 win over North Pole’s Mark Barrie. Despite falling to the top seed of his class during the first round on Friday,

Farber muscled his way through the backside of the bracket and finished third. Farber beat Service’s Derek Zorea 14-10 in the consolation final.

Nate Wolfe also advanced to the consolation final for Colony, and finished fourth at 160. Joe Fujimoto was sixth for the Knights at 152.

Palmer and Houston each placed a pair of wrestlers in the top six of their respective weight classes. Leppanen, a senior, led the Moose by finishing fourth in the 135-pound class. Mason Cochran was sixth at 103 for Palmer.

Arron Reese, who won a Mid-Alaska Conference title last week, finished fourth in the 171-pound class. Reese placed in state for the second straight year. Freshman Luke Wagner capped his first state tourney by pinning Eagle River’s Nate Williams in the fifth-place match of the 215-pound bracket.

ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Wrestling Championships

Saturday, Menard Arena

Team scores:

1. Wasilla 200.5; 2. Service 177; 3. East Anchorage 148.5; 4. Lathrop 142; 5. Colony 134; 6. Kodiak 109; 7. North Pole 103; 8. South Anchorage 90; 9. Chugiak 68; 10. Bartlett 65; 11. Eagle River 60; 12. Ketchikan 44.5; 13. Soldotna 37; 14. Homer 36; 15. Palmer 34.5; 16. Houston 31; 17. Kenai 30; 18. West Anchorage 26; 19. West Valley 26; 20. Thunder Mountain 21; 21. Dimond 17; 22. Skyveiw 16.5; 23. Juneau 2.

Championship final:

103 pounds - H. Steffenson, Ken d. K. Hammond, SA 2-0 OT; 112 - A. Hendrix, Lat m.d. A. Nanez, Ser 10-2; 119 - A. Fox, Was d. R. Sanford, Ket 8-6; 125- C. Lacey, Ser d. D. Achman, Lat 9-4; 130- T. Adams, Was d. J. Lunsford, Ser 9-2; 135- J. Rahlfs, NP d. D. Taus, ER 3-2; 140 - M. Malnoske, East d. P. Brodie, Kod 6-3; 145- A. Tennis, Sol m.d. M. Downing, East 21-10; 152- K. Boss, Col d. P. Mullet, Chu 3-1 OT; 160 - B. Wiese, Lat m.d. D. Castonguay, Kod 10-1; 171 — M. Wyatt, Hom p. J. Hamilton, East 2:42; 189 — S. Ellis, Ser d. D. Wilson, East 10-5 OT; 215 — J. Johnson, Was m.d. G. Morrison, Chu 16-4; 285 — C. Green, Bar d. R. Wright, Col 3-2.

Third-place matches:

103 pounds - S. Carpenter, Was m.d. K. Willard, East 12-2; 112 - N. Marquez, East d. E. Burris, Kod 9-7; 119 - J. Hogenson, SA d. N. McKimson, Was 4-0; 125 - C. Decker, NP d. T. Sturgill, Bar 6-2; 130 - J. Borrego, ER d. T. Riley, TM 9-2; 135 - L. Faulkner, Col d. L. Leppanen, Pal 3-1; 140 - S. Temple, Lat d. B. Markson, SA 5-2; 145- D. Johnsen, Was d. P. Pena, West 2-0 OT; 152- T. Osborn, Lat p. K. Banning, Ser 3:35; 160- T. Shepersky, NP d. N. Wolfe, Col 8-5; 171- J. Dennehy, SA p. A. Reese, Hou 5:16; 189- Q. Wright, Col d. M. Barrie, NP 8-3; 215- T. Farber, Col d. D. Zorea, Ser 14-10; 285- D. Yeager, Bar d. R. Pomrenke, Was 3-1 OT;

Fifth-place matches:

103 pounds - J. Wood, NP m.d. M. Cochran, Pal 7-0; 112 - G. Larson, Ser p. A. Wood, NP 3:56; 119 - T. Mockta, Ser d. F. Liorente, Kod 3-2; 125- J. Pounds, Ser d. D. Agnew, WV 5-4; 130- J. Wenzl, Chu d. D. Barrie, NP 3-2; 135- B. Serna, Was d. A. Sierra, East 8-6 OT: 145- K. Leppola, Kod d. J. Diederich, Was 2-0; 145- C. Dickens, Chu d. N. Krohne, WV 5-1; 152- B. Nix, Dim d. J. Fujimoto, Col 5-2; 160- J. Wiggins, East d. R. Skieens, Ser 8-3; 171- C. MacDowell, SA m.d. Y. Makitrin, Was 18-9; 189- J. Medubuko, ER p. C. Johnson, Kod 3:40; 215- L. Wagner, Hou p. N. Williams, ER 4:20; 285- L. Peralta, East d. C. Bossio, TM 4-2 OT.