Coach Jack Carney said, “it wasn’t our best weekend,” but it was good enough that the Wrangell High School team placed 15 of their 17 wrestlers in the top six in their weight class.

Of those 15, three emerged as champions and four scored second-place finishes at the Bill Weiss Wrestling Tournament held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6-7, in Ketchikan.

The team scored 32 pins and placed first among Division II schools, third overall at the tournament.

The Wolves won more than half their matches, Carney said, a letdown from this season’s overall score of 219 wins to 105 match defeats. Of those 219 wins, more than 80%, or 180, were by pins, he said.

And although it was a winning weekend for the Wolves in Ketchikan, it wasn’t easy getting there — or getting out.

Gusty winds forced the Thursday afternoon Alaska Airlines southbound flight to skip Wrangell and all of Southeast, pushing the Wrangell wrestlers to the Friday flight, arriving late to the tournament.

“They held the tournament for us,” Carney said. Even with that accommodation, “it’s hard to get off the plane and wrestle. … Some of them wrestled a little flat, which is understandable.”

Then on Sunday, Wrangell was scheduled to come home aboard the state ferry Columbia, which had been out of service all week for repairs in Ketchikan. The ferry system had announced all week that it would be repaired and back in service for its scheduled run from Ketchikan to Wrangell on Sunday.

Nervous whether that would come true, Carney said he checked the ferry service website as soon as he woke up at 5 a.m. Sunday — it said all was well. Still suspicious, he went to the ferry terminal and learned that the ship was not repaired and no one knew for certain when it would depart.

“They didn’t tell us until the last second,” he said. 

By then, it was too late for the team to change plans and board Alaska Airlines’ northbound flight to Wrangell. They spent the day at Ketchikan High School, doing homework, Carney said, adding, “Ketchikan is a great host.”

As of Monday, the Columbia was still parked in Ketchikan. “A new piston, sourced directly from the manufacturer in Germany, is now in transit via priority air freight,” according to the Alaska Marine Highway System website. The part was scheduled to arrive Monday morning. No updated sailing schedule was posted.

Giving up on the ferry, the Wrangell team booked a 40-foot charter vessel that got them home Sunday evening, Carney said.

The wrestling matches went better than the team’s travel plans. Seniors Jackson Carney (152 pounds) and Everett Meissner (171 pounds) took first place in their weight class, as did junior Kourtney Barnes (126 pounds). 

The four Wolves who lost in their final match and placed second in the tournament were Rider Ritchie, Arabella Nore, Jenna Messiner and Cooper Powers. “All of them lost to state placers,” their coach said of the tough opponents, including Ritchie, who lost to last year’s state champ.

Carney said the Ketchikan tournament was “a nice precursor to see how the region is stacking up.”

Next up for Wrangell is the Lancer Smith Memorial Wrestling Tournament in Palmer on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 13-14, where wrestlers from big and small schools will compete together. “It’s very hard to win,” the coach said.

The Wolves plan to send seven of their 17 wrestlers to Palmer, giving the others a break. 

That will be followed by a meet Nov. 20-21 in Petersburg, then a Thanksgiving break before Dec. 4-5 in Sitka and Southeast regionals Dec. 11-12 in Wrangell. “We’re going to peak out at the last three tournaments and peak out at the right time,” Carney said.