Lots of pins in Petersburg wrestling meet last weekend

Wrangell's Wolves wrestlers had a good tournament in Petersburg over the weekend, edging out the home team for pins in a two-day tournament.

"It was good," said coach Jeff Rooney. "We ran a couple of different styles," he explained, with a scramble format followed by a round robin on November 10. The following day, round-robin match-ups were followed by a bracketed format.

In a mixed face-off on Friday, JD Barratt wrestled his way to the top of his 113 weight bracket. In a round-robin he won all three matches, ending two in pins after about a minute and a half and the third by technical fall.

Freshman Chase Kincaid finished the meet in second place for the 120 class, winning two of his three matches. After being pinned in 3:15 by Metlakatla wrestler Laura Ekada, Kincaid won over her classmate Jared Alirkar by 7-5 decision. He won the third round by 13-1 majority decision over Klawock senior Yajaira Ponce.

In the 145B bracket, sophomore Hannah Brown placed third in a round robin. Sitka student Reilly Holden won their first match by 14-0 majority decision, and classmate Wayne Young won the next by technical fall in 5:05.

Ian Jenson finished the

152-pound bracket in second place, winning two of three matches. In the second, he won over Thunder Mountain's Jacob Ferster by pin in 38 seconds, before finishing behind Klawock senior James Heppe in a 7-2 decision.

Junior student Dillon Rooney finished in second place in his round-robin, winning by fall over Petersburg's Brandon Ware in 3:48, and losing in a close 4-5 decision to Thunder Mountain's Derek Mason.

Competing the following day, Barratt finished his second round-robin with three wins, with pins ending in 24, 28 and 36 seconds. In the finals bracket, he went on to beat Craig's Matthew Colbert by fall in 1:34, and in the final round won over Petersburg's Jolyn Toyomura in 2:37.

Kincaid also had a good Saturday, winning two of three rounds in the round-robin. Ekada again came out on top of the bracket, her pin over Kincaid in 2:42 securing a first-place finish.

Rooney explained that for time's sake, not every bracket had both a round-robin and bracket component on Saturday.

The 145 did, and Brown competed in two round-robin matches. The first ended in a technical fall for Holden, with Heppe winning the next by pin in 36 seconds. In the finals bracket she placed sixth overall in a face-off with Young, who won by fall in 19 seconds.

Also seeing both round-robin and bracket play, in the 152 Jenson won two matches in the former and finished third overall in the latter. After Heppe won by 10-2 majority decision in the finals' opening, Jenson competed with Ware for third place in the consolation bracket, finishing with a pin in 1:46.

Hunter Wiederspohn also finished third in the 160 weight bracket. In the preceding round-robin, the sophomore won one of his two matches. In the bracket, after being pinned by Sitka's Kyler Sumauang in 1:02 he won over Petersburg's Koren Sperl by forfeiture in the final.

The junior Rooney won his two matches in Saturday's round-robin, and went on to take second place in the bracket. After winning by fall in 3:20 over Thunder Mountain's Camden Erickson, he was bested for first by Thunder Mountains junior Derek Mason by 5-0 decision.

"They did very well, a lot of good wrestling," Coach Rooney said afterward. With their season drawing to a close within the next month, the team has been showing good progress. "We learned quite a bit."

The team's performance was hampered by a couple of injuries, and in order to recuperate Rooney said the team will forgo this upcoming weekend scheduled in Klawock. That should allow the team to recharge over the Thanksgiving break as well, in time for its next meet in Sitka on December 1. After that, Region V is scheduled the next weekend in Ketchikan.