Warriors, Knights 1-2 at West

ANCHORAGE — Having more than a handful of varsity wrestlers away competing in the annual Reno Tournament of Champions did little to slow Valley teams at the West High Christmas Classic this past weekend.

Wasilla and Colony finished first and second in the tournament, each crowning a trio of grapplers as individual champions.

Wasilla ran away with the team competition, scoring 442.5 points, while Colony’s 342.5 was enough to edge third-place West (337.5).

“The kids wrestled really tough,” Warriors head coach Shawn Hays said, adding that being a little deeper into the season means wrestlers are settling into their final weights. “We’re getting that all figured out. This was a good weekend and there were a lot of wrestlers in Reno from all of our teams.”

That allowed others to step up to the varsity and show their stuff, Hays said. Like DJ Morrow.

Morrow pinned Eagle River’s Xavier Horton in 4:57 in the finals to win the 152-pound title. It was Morrow’s first time wrestling in the finals of a tournament.

Another standout was Justin Genz, Hays said, who scored a major decision over Colony’s Chase Fannon 10-1 in the 126-pound finals.

“He’s normally at 120 and he wrestled up at 126 and won it,” Hays said. “That was really cool.”

Ryker Steiner also won an individual title for the Warriors at 132 pounds, a 7-4 decision over Colony’s Spencer Adams. Three other Warriors made the finals as well: Brandon Abbot at 113 pounds, Mark Dobbs at 182 and Billy Schultz at 195.

That 195-pound match featured another matchup of Valley rivals, with Colony’s Austin Rench winning a close 6-5 decision.

Palmer placed 12th at the Christmas Classic, but was missing 10 wrestlers from the regular lineup who were competing in Reno.

The overall strength and depth of Valley teams and their region is evident so far this season, Hays said.

“Our region right now, if you look at what happened at the state duals, too, our region’s going to be tough,” he said. “Colony’s wrestling well, and so is Palmer. … This was really good for the team and they really stepped up. A lot of wrestlers who normally aren’t our first string guys make it to the finals.”

Root places in Reno

Of those Valley wrestlers who traveled to the Reno Tournament of Champions, one — Colony sophomore Sawyer Root — placed. A highly competitive tournament, Reno draws some of the top prep grapplers in the country. Root wrestled through to place eighth at 182 pounds.

“I’ve never wrestled out of state before, Root said. “Alaska’s a little pond and the United States is a big lake. We have tough kids in Alaska and there’s tough kids in the Lower 48, too.”

One of the toughest in the Lower 48 is Tyler Green of Pennsylvania, the tourney’s No. 2 seed. Root matched up with him in the third round, losing a close 7-6 decision, a match he said he though he could win.

“I felt like I should’ve won that,” he said. “I was up 5-0 after the first period, and the rest of the match I was really passive and he punished me for it. I felt like afterwards I should’ve won.”

He did more winning after that. He advanced to face Green after having a first-round bye, the beating Angel Robles of California 5-3. After his first loss, Root wrestled back to beat Zack Ewert of Reno 6-0, Lane Chadwick of Idaho 7-3 and Harley Dilulo of Idaho 3-1. Root then dropped a 5-2 decision to Brock Warren of Oklahoma, putting him in the seventh-place match against Jake Tolman of Utah, who won 10-0.

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

West High

Christmas Classic

Dec. 14-15, West High School

Team Scores

1. Wasilla 442.5, 2. Colony 342, 3. West 337.5, 4. Kenai 278, 5. Kodiak and Service 269, 7. South 258.5, 8. East 239, 9. Bartlett 203.5, 10. Eagle River 185, 11. Chugiak 154.5, 12. Palmer 150, 13. Soldotna 124.5, 14. Thunder Mountain 99.5, 15. Dimond 84.5.

Main Tournament

98 pounds — 1. Greg Shack, South; 2. Slava Hoffman, Service; 3. Bryce Adams, Colony; 4. Brian Conrad, Palmer; 5. Elissa Gamble, West; 6. Jordan Anderson, West.

First-place matches

106 pounds — Kyle Willard, East dec. Hope Steffensen, Kenai 5-0.

113 — Andrew Caballa, Kodiak dec. Brandon Abbott, Wasilla 11-4.

120 — Jay-Ar Small, Kodiak dec. Joshua Fetko, Service 6-5.

126 — Justin Gentz, Wasilla maj. dec. Chase Fannon, Colony 10-1.

132 — Ryker Steiner, Wasilla dec. Spencer Adams, Colony 7-4.

138 — Damian Sotelo, Bartlett dec. Chris Weidner, West 1-0.

145 — Cameron White, Kokiak dec. Tyler Thammavongsa, Service 9-4.

152 — DJ Morrow, Wasilla pinned Xavier Horton, Eagle River 4:57.

160 — Logan Conway, Colony dec. Dylan Carter, Kenai 7-3.

170 — Josh Wiggins, East, dec. Leroy Elliot, West 3-0.

182 — Troy Strieff, Soldotna dec. Mark Dobbs, Wasilla 7-5 OT.

195 — Austin Rench, Colony dec. Billy Schultz, Wasilla 6-5.

220 — Ian MacKenzie, Colony dec. Richard Burroughs, Chugiak 3-1 OT.

285 — Keanu King, Eaast pinned Jarmie Augafa, South 4:35.

Third-place matches

106 pounds — Jejomar Briones, West maj. dec. Joel Valdez, Kodiak 13-4.

113 — Matt Glover, South maj. dec. Jordan Nero, Colony 10-0.

120 — Rami Pellumbi, South dec. Zack Luff, Eagle River 8-6.

126 — Dustin Holta, Chugiak dec. Tyler Nunez, Bartlett 9-6.

132 — Gavin Arnold, Eagle River maj. dec. Aaron Troxell-Tom, Kenai 12-2.

138 — Jordan Pace, Bartlett dec. Pat Inglet, Wasilla 3-1 OT.

145 — Collin Bendixen, Palmer dec. Nolan Fitzgerald, West 7-5.

152 — Cesar Guzman, East dec. Emetrius McCleod, Service 6-4.

160 — Zane Mileur, Colony dec. Conner Minnick, Wasilla 4-2.

170 — Hayden Seltenreich, Wasilla pinned Jackson Pavitt, Thunder Mountain 1:18.

182 — Kerry Powers, Kodiak pinned Keahi Queja, East 4:03.

195 — Alex Fuller, Wasilla dec. Joel Ryno, Palmer 1-0.

220 — Nicholas Stevens, Service, pinned Lui Faumasino, West 4:30.

285 — Salalau Sega, Kokiak dec. Tevita Fehoko, West 5-0.

Fifth-place matches

106 pounds — Masami Kageyama, Kodiak pinned Isaac Lynch, Wasilla 2:09.

113 — Leonardo Cruz, Kodiak forfeit over Matthew Bracker, Colony.

120 — Andrew Concepcion, South pinned Dustin Everitt, Kenai 1:58.

126 — Nyeem Johnson, Service dec. Jaime Green, Bartlett 4-0.

132 — TJ Limbo, West dec. Hunter Myers, Bartlett 5-0.

138 — Hayden Reibe, Eagle River forfeit over Matthew Harvey, Dimond.

145 — Nolan Christopher, Kenai ultimate tiebreak Cory Florence, Eagle River 4-2.

152 — Nathan Hakala, South pinned Robert Nash, Colony 4:36.

160 — Blake Phillips, Thunder Mountain, dec. Zane Fejes, South 6-4 OT.

170 — Zachariah Doan, Colony pinned Matt Aho, Kenai 4:01.

182 — Abraham Faletagoai, West dec. Tyler Brown, Kenai 15-13.

195 — Zach Koziczkowski, Kenai pinned Toren Cheely, Chugiak 3:54.

220 — Mike Hyde, West pinned Wyatt Bruso, Bartlett 0:54.

285 — Cody Wadsworth, Dimond pinned Geraldo Hernandez, Dimond 3:48.