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A pair of Mt. Edgecumbe wrestlers claimed individual titles at the Bill Weiss Invitational in Ketchikan over the weekend.
Fritz Guy won at 103 pounds and Jaylin Prince was crowned champion at 285.
Three other Braves placed in the top four of their respective weight classes at the tournament, but the performance of the Craig Panthers seemed to steal the day. In the final tune-up prior to the Region V tournament, Dec. 4-5 in Petersburg, the Panthers scored 138 points to take the team title.
Craig was without freshman Tanner Thain, a favorite to win a regional title at 103 pounds.
Kayhi took second with 124.5 points, and Petersburg (108.5), Hoonah (108.5), Sitka (101) and Mt. Edgecumbe (86) rounded out the top six.
Mt. Edgecumbe was missing varsity point scorers, including likely Region V champ Terry Rogers. And without the 4A schools the scoring will shake out a bit differently.
But with just over a week to go before the Southeast championships, the Braves find themselves in what appears to be a four-team race for a Region V 3A title.
In the early-going of the 2009 wrestling season, it looked like Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka were the Region V favorites. But Craig, Petersburg, and even Hoonah have come on in recent weeks, setting up what should be a tightly-contested Region V tournament.
Craig has five wrestlers who should make the finals at the regional tournament, and all five could win individual titles. The question is whether Sitka and Edgecumbe can capture enough second-, third- and fourth-place finishes to close the gap.
Hoonah had its best performance of the season in Ketchikan, but the Braves don't seem to have the depth necessary to win in Petersburg. With home-mat advantage, the Vikings could be tough, local coaches said.
``It's anybody's guess,'' MEHS coach Mike Kimber said today. ``It will come down to who performs. I think we're peaking at the right time, that's for sure.''
There is still one match left before the Region V tournament in Petersburg: Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe will meet in a dual Tuesday night at Sitka High. The teams have split a pair of official duals so far this season.
Guy got things started for Edgecumbe in Ketchikan with a 9-3 win over Sitka's Melvin Villanueva in the 103-pound final.
Daniel Villasenor was third for Mt. Edgecumbe at 119, falling to Petersburg's Tom Schwartz in the semifinals.
After losing in the semifinals, wrestlers had to win in the consolation bracket to take third place.
Also taking the bronze for the Braves were Donovan Phillip and Ian Sia.
Phillip, who typically wrestles at 189, bumped up to 215 in Ketchikan. Phillip lost to Patrick Quigley of Craig, the eventual champion.
With Phillip up at 215, Kimber entered Prince at 285. Prince has wrestled 215 most of the season and is 1-2 against Quigley.
But Prince dominated the heavyweight division in Ketchikan, recording a third-period pin over a wrestler from Metlakatla in the finals.
Sia was third at 135 pounds, losing to a Petersburg wrestler in the semifinals.
Kimber had three junior varsity wrestlers at 125 in Ketchikan: Lula Sheldon, Krystle Lincoln and George Brown.
Vance Gregory (160), Jared Menadelook (145), Stefan Weingarth (189) and Henry Horner (140) also competed for Mt. Edgecumbe.
Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka will meet to settle their season series Tuesday night, with varsity wrestling scheduled for 7 p.m. at SHS. After that, there will be a short break for Thanksgiving, before the teams head south to Petersburg for the Region V tournament.
With a handful of local wrestlers sick, the dual match between Sitka High and Mt. Edgecumbe was called off Tuesday.
But the wrestling went on at the Sitka High campus, with the teams facing off in a series of exhibitions that reaffirmed what most local wrestling fans already knew: besides the O'Connell Bridge, not much separates the Braves and the Wolves.
Tuesday's action was not a true dual, but the teams wrestled a total of 14 matches. And as was the case the previous two times SHS and Edgecumbe met this season, each team won seven matches.
"Two pretty evenly matches teams,'' Sitka coach John Hedden said, when asked for his thoughts on the latest installment of the "Bridge Battle."
Official team scores weren't kept, but a quick tally showed that Tuesday's exhibition ended in a 32-32 tie.
Sitka High's Daniel Bartlett recorded a key pin with three seconds remaining in his 145-pound bout with Frank Ahkavluk, of Nome, that helped even the score. Bartlett was leading 14-11 at the time, but a victory by that score would have given Sitka only three points, not the six earned by a pin.
Instead, Bartlett won by fall, and the latest match between Mt. Edgecumbe and Sitka, two 3A rivals, ended in a tie.
The results resembled those from Sitka and Edgecumbe's previous meetings this season. After falling behind 27-3 in the first match, the Edgecumbe Braves stormed back to win 33-30. The SHS Wolves evened the scored with a 32-30 win at the end of October.
A rubber match is scheduled for Nov. 24 at Sitka High.
``Hopefully everybody is healthy -- it makes for better wrestling,'' MEHS coach Mike Kimber said, when asked about the dual next week.
The action Tuesday got underway with Trevin Prince, a senior from Bethel, pinning Sitka High's Lucas Ballesteroz in a heavyweight match.
Fritz Guy, a sophomore from Kwethluk, also won for Edgecumbe, taking an 11-5 victory over Melvin Villanueva at 103.
The first victory for Sitka High came when Darin Davis pinned Kory Joe, an Edgecumbe freshman from Mountain Village.
At 119, Daniel Villasenor, a sophomore from Bethel, pinned Chris Clement. Villasenor has come on late in the season, Kimber said.
``He's peaking at the right time heading into the Regionals,'' Kimber said.
After Villasenor's win, Sitka took two matches with Will Patrick pinning Lula Sheldon, a senior from Amber, at 125, and Jake Licari beating Andrew Nick, a sophomore from Red Devil, 18-2 at 130.
Next up was two wins for Mt. Edgecumbe. Ian Sia, a senior from Bethel, beat John Davis 11-0 at 135 and Henry Horner, a senior from Kobuk, scored a 10-4 victory over Alex Kernin at 140.
It was Horner's first match in more than two weeks and Kimber said he was ``sharper than expected.''
In another 140-pound bout, Sitka's Mitchell Boord beat Shawn Andrews, a sophomore from St. Michael, 6-4. At 145, Max Hanson scored an escape point in the fourth overtime period to beat Mt. Edgecumbe's Zach Ivanoff, a junior from Unalakleet, 3-2.
In a 152-pound bout, David Erickson beat Luki Akelkok, a junior from Dillingham, 10-6.
Bartlett followed with his key pin of Ahkavluk and Edgecumbe then closed out the night with two straight pins: Jaylin Prince, a sophomore from Kotlik, dropped Robert Pountney and Donovan Phillip, a sophomore from Anchorage, beat Ballesteroz with a fall.
Next up for Mt. Edgecumbe is a tournament in Ketchikan Nov. 20-21. The Kayhi tourney is the final tune-up before the Region V tournament in Petersburg, Dec. 4-5.
Edgecumbe, Sitka, Craig and Petersburg appear to be locked in a four-way battle for the Southeast title this season. Kimber said he was encouraged that Edgecumbe's second and third-string wrestlers were performing better late in the season.
``That’s where the (Region V) tournament will be decided," Kimber said.
Mt. Edgecumbe’s Terry Rogers suffered his first loss of the 2009 season Saturday, falling 7-1 in the 145-pound final at the Anchorage Christian School tournament to Dillingham’s Reed Tennyson.
Rogers finished in second place. MEHS coach Mike Kimber said Rogers, a senior who has placed at the state tournament in his first three years as a high school wrestler, hasn’t “peaked yet” this season.
He said Rogers and Tennyson could meet again later this year, mostly likely at the state tournament.
Jaylin Prince, who wrested at 215 for the Braves, took third place Saturday. Prince lost in the semifinals to Patrick Quigley of Craig and came back with a win over a Seward wrestler to take the bronze.
Prince and Quigley have met three times this year, with Quigley winning twice. The pair of 215-pounders will likely meet again in the Southeast final.
The annual ACS tournament draws the top small-school wrestlers in the state and is considered a state tournament preview.
Dillingham won the tournament with 234 points, followed by Bethel (203), Nikiski (161.5), Kotzebue (158.5) and Cordova (128.5). Mt. Edgecumbe scored 57 points, good enough for 18th place. There were more than 30 teams at the tournament.
Ian Sia wrestled at 135 for the Braves and finished with a 3-2 record. Kimber said Sia needed one more win to place in the top six.
Levi Kvasnikoff (160, 2-2), Gusty Akelkok (160, 1-2) and Luki Akelkok (152) also wrestled for Mt. Edgecumbe.