Warriors win!

EAGLE RIVER -- It was a good day to be a Wade, and a good day to be a Warrior.

Jed and Jake Wade each won state titles and led the Wasilla Warrior wrestling squad to an overwhelming victory at the 4A state tournament at Chugiak High School on Saturday.

Wade and the Warriors made history at least three times over the weekend. A 9-3 decision over Keenan Chirhart of Dimond gave Jed the fourth state title of his illustrious prep career. He is only the third grappler in this state's history to win four individual state titles.

Jed and Jake's back-to-back wins in the final at the 171- and 189-pound classes marked the first time a pair of brothers won titles in the same state tourney since 1969.

And Wasilla won not only its first state wrestling title, but the first state championship in a boys' sport in the history of the school.

"I really couldn't ask for more," Jed Wade said. "I am very happy with it all. It all worked out."

Jed also was named outstanding wrestler of the tourney. Of the three matches he wrestled prior to advancing to the finals, Jed pinned two in the first round and defeated a third 21-6.

With Wasilla's success in the tourney it was only fitting that Warrior mentor Shawn Hayes was named coach of the year.

"Shawn Hayes deserves all the credit," Jed Wade said. "All the coaches -- Nick Dougherty, Brad Bell, Doug Reich -- they deserve the credit. They work hard with all of us."

The Wasilla assistant coaches were also named assistants of the year.

Wasilla placed six wrestlers in the state finals, but it was the work of the grapplers in the consolation bracket that clinched the team title for the Warriors.

"Our guys went 7-for-7 in the first (consolation) round (Saturday) morning," Jed Wade said. "They were beating guys they didn't beat all season."

John Olson (189 pounds), Roland Warrior (160), Mike Trudeau (145), Mike Miller (140) and Same Miller (112) each won three matches in the consolation bracket. Olson pinned Jake Ritter, the top seed in the 189-pound class, to advance to the third-place match. Miller defeated Zack Aragon of Skyview, the fourth seed in the 140-pound class, to move into the consolation finals. Trudeau topped Jake Savely, another strong Skyview grappler, 4-2, and followed with a 7-3 win over Lathrop's James Miller, the third seed in his class. Dan Bailey of Chugiak, the fourth seed in the class, edged Trudeau in the consolation finals.

Miller topped teammate Danny Lyles 2-0 to take fifth at 112 pounds.

Duane Carpenter won a pair of matches on the backside bracket to take third.

"The semifinals got us the lead, the kids in the consolations sealed the deal," Hayes said. "They were beating kids they've never beaten, guys they lost to all season."

The Warriors, powered by seven wrestlers in the championship semifinals, had 152 total points and led second-place Skyview by 57 points after the end of first day of competition.

Led by all the wins the Warrior wrestlers churned out on the second day, Wasilla finished with an astronomical 215 points, miles ahead of Skyview, the tournament runner-up with 143 points.

Alan Bartelli (103), Chris Odom (135), Chuck Carpenter (160) and Jeremiee Meisler (275) joined the Wade brothers in the finals for Wasilla. Bartelli, Odom, Carpenter and Meisler each placed second in their weight class.

Jake Wade earned a takedown with just 10 seconds remaining in regulation to earn a 5-4 decision over Sean Ritchie of North Pole to win the 171-pound title. Ritchie who entered the match 27-0 on the season, defeated Wade twice before this season, each time by just one point.

"Ritchie's tough," Jake Wade said. "It was a close match, a last second move, I expected that."

Wade scored his first takedown of the match, midway through the second, after he slapped Ritchie down to the mat, bull-rushed the North Pole grappler and spun behind to score the two points and take the 3-2 lead.

"I was pretty pumped. He got off balance and I went for it," Wade said.

Ritchie registered an escape to tie the score at 3-3 near the end of the second period, and Wade let Ritchie up at the beginning of the third. Facing a one-point deficit, Wade took a handful of chances, and nearly completed a handful of single-leg takedowns. In the closing seconds, Ritchie shot in unsuccessfully and Wade was able to get behind and throw Ritchie to the mat to get the points.

Jed followed in the 189-pound final with the six-point win over Chirhart and the Wade family won back-to-back golds.

"It is awesome, no matter what happens it motivates me," Jed Wade said about wrestling right after his younger brother. "He lost two to Ritchie and I had to wrestle right after. It kind of motivates me, makes me mad. (Tonight) I was pumped, the crowd was pumped."

Wade scored a quick takedown and rode the Dimond grappler for most of the first period, trying to find a pin combination.

"My goal was to wrestle a controlled match," Wade said.

Wade scored two more takedowns in the second period, en route to the win. Each of Chirhart's three points were earned via escape.

After beating Simeon Daigle of Homer, the second seeded wrestler in his class, for the first time in the semifinals, Bartelli suffered a 12-1 decision to Juneau's Gerry Carillo in the finals. Monte Garroutte recorded a pair of quick takedowns in the first period and worked toward a 7-2 win over Odom in the 135-pound class. Odom, a junior, finished the season 23-3, with two of his losses coming to the Homer wrestler. Jeff Herron of Bartlett scored an escape as time expired to slip past Carpenter 5-4 in the 160-pound final. Carpenter advanced to the finals in just his sophomore season.

Jon Hamilton of Ketchikan survived to defeat Meisler 15-11 in the heavyweight class. Hamilton used large weight advantage to ride to leads of 7-3 and 15-7. With just 25 seconds left in regulation, Meisler turned Hamilton to his back, got four near-fall points, but was unable to secure the Ketchikan big man.

Hamilton handed Meisler his only two losses in Alaska meets this season.

Colony advanced a pair of wrestlers to the final round. Freshman Hollan Gravely defeated defending state champion David Mann of Ketchikan to win the 112-pound title. The Colony whiz kid jumped out to a 4-0 lead and survived a late rush by Mann to win the match 8-6.

Knight junior Dustin Killion dropped a 9-2 decision to Eli Hutchinson, his nemesis in the 119-pound class. Killian finished the season 25-3, with all three losses coming to the Skyview grappler.

Sophomore Trevor Pempek represented Palmer in the state finals. West Valley sophomore David Weiss defeated Pempek 5-2 to win his second-straight state crown.