A three-week layoff came to an end for the Haines wrestling team as it hosted its semi-annual home wrestling tournament last weekend at Haines High School.
Teams from Juneau, Metlakatla, Sitka and Skagway participated.
The weekend’s high point was a series of spotlight matches on Friday night that sought to pair the most equally matched wrestlers against one another.
For Haines, seniors Ketch Jacobson and Mori Hays were defeated in their spotlight matches, but the action was non-stop and riveting.
Hays was defeated by Gavin Hammock of Sitka by a final tally of 9-5 in the 138-pound division. Jacobson suffered a first-round pin defeat to Sitka’s Sidney Fleming in the 145-pound division.
In the 220-pound division, sophomore Kamakana Kanahele earned a win by pin at the 1:30 mark of the third round against Timothy Williams of Metlakatla.
Kanahele earned his first wins of the season and finished 3-1 overall.
Kanahele’s first match of the weekend was a double-overtime victory that fan Liam Cassidy said, “was the best wrestling match I’ve seen in quite some time. Fans were emotional and were standing up and counting down the final moments. There was great energy in the gym for that one.”
Jacobson said the team used the past few weeks to improve its skills. “We’ve been working real hard in practice and I saw a lot of improvement from everybody, especially Kamakana. I haven’t seen him wrestle like that ever before, so I think it definitely paid off.”
Jacobson finished the weekend 3-1 and earned a bit of personal redemption in his first match. He pinned the same wrestler who knocked him out of a state berth at last year’s regional competition.
“I knew I could beat him, but it did feel good to beat him after last year. His win last year was an upset because I was seeded ahead of him, so this win felt really good,” Jacobson said.
Mori Hays wrestled at 138 pounds, down from the 145-pound class at which he started the season. He said that despite going 1-3 for the weekend, the new weight class “will be good for me. I have to approach future matches with a better mindset and pace myself better. I was surprised that I got tired, but it should work out.”
Overall, the three Haines wrestlers fared well and posted an overall team record of 7-5.
Coaches Andrew Cardella and Dennis Durr said they were happy with the team’s performance and were especially grateful to volunteers who made the local meet possible.
“We were really impressed by how many volunteers we had to run the scorers’ table and the clocks, etc. Parents of former wrestlers and school staff came out to help and we actually ended up with more volunteers than we needed, which at first seemed like it might go the other way,” Durr said. “A big shout-out to Haines and all the people who helped make this a success and hopefully we can pull the whole thing off again next year.”
Haines’ next meet is in Wrangell on Dec. 2-3.