More than 200 wrestlers representing 14 Southeast high school teams traveled to Haines for bragging rights and to determine who will represent their schools at this weekend’s Alaska School Activities Association Wrestling Championships in Anchorage.
It was the first time in more than a decade that the Glacier Bears have hosted the Region V wrestling tournament.
“It went really well,” said Haines’ head wrestling coach Andus Hale. “It was something that I found out last spring we were going to do. And I was obsessed about it because I wanted it to go smoothly.”
Hale said he was amazed at the community’s enthusiasm and willingness to help out in what became a celebration of wrestling. “It was visceral… I’ve never heard that gym so loud.”
For the 10 wrestlers that represented Haines High, the road to regionals has not been easy.
“All the constant travel gave us some ups and downs as far as sicknesses,” said Hale. “A couple of weeks ago, we traveled with two people who didn’t wrestle as much this year.” He’s talking about 125-pound senior Hayden Jimenez and 145-pound junior Colton Combs. According to Hale, Jimenez suffered an elbow injury earlier in the season and Combs joined the team halfway through the season. “(Combs) didn’t come out for wrestling this year, because he was focusing on basketball season,” he said.
But Combs returned to the mat in early November when he had an epiphany. “He came to me,” Hale said, “and he’s like wait a minute, I made a mistake here. Can I still come out and wrestle?”
The pair – Jimenez and Combs – returned from the tournament more confident and the team gained momentum.
“We went into this weekend in stride,” Hale said. “We were all pretty much in peak performance mode, and everyone went out there and performed in front of their home crowd.”
It’s true – of the 10 Glacier Bears on the team, five wrestled their way to the top of the podium and a sixth wrestler will travel to the Alaska Airlines Center to compete on Friday. Hale, who is a teacher first, emphasized that’s 60% of the wrestling team.
“We had one second-place finisher, 215-pound junior James Stickler,” said Hale.
Although the team placed third overall in their division, Hale is pleased. “Winning half of the weight classes that were entered is something to be proud of,” he said.
The team is also fairly young. “Finn Crowe, a freshman, he’s dealt with a lot of things,” Hale said. “He had a wrist injury this past spring, so he couldn’t wrestle club (offseason).” He said his lack of mat time due to injuries and then succumbing to illnesses early in the season was challenging.
Crowe wrestled at 103 pounds and is headed to his first state championship. “I only had one other person in my weight class,” the ninth grader said. That’s because during regional championships they divide the divisions between big schools (Division I) and small schools (Division II).
Crowe has been wrestling since seventh grade and is the future of the team, Hale said. “I’m excited for the whole team. I think everyone was excited for regionals and we did great,” he said. “I was excited how well everybody performed and I think we did pretty good as a team.”
Crowe said he expects tough match ups in his weight class. “It definitely (will be) some of the hardest I’ve seen all year, but I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
Crowe also said he’s looking forward to watching the older wrestlers, like Camelia Bell, compete.
Bell is the sole female wrestler on the team and competes at 100 pounds. She has been on the team since last year. According to Hale, Bell’s mother approached him last year and asked if her daughter could try out for the team even though she felt like it was too late.
“I said ‘It’s never too late,’” Hale said. He did encourage Bell to practice during the offseason with the club team and she did. Bell has a 4.0 GPA, and has been a quick learner when it comes to learning new skills, according to Hale.
Bell was crowned the 100-pound regional champion when she pinned Ketchikan’s Gabrielle Bueno during last weekend’s finals.
“She just followed everything that we taught her, and she’s having all kinds of success… so we have great hopes for the state championships.”
Senior Dalton Henry wrestled Mount Edgecumbe High School’s Samson Smith in the 171-pound finals. It was a rubber match. The two have wrestled each other twice earlier in the season and were even.
“Dalton was on a mission,” said Hale. “ He got up by six points…and then (Smith) hit this funky move off the bottom, put (Henry) on his back, so it was a six-point move to tie the match.”
It went into overtime. But Hale said he prepared the team to swim in deep waters. “We practice overtime wrestling every day, in practice,” he said. “(Henry) just kicked it into another gear and took Sampson down for the win. He was exhausted, but he got the job done.”
The last match of the finals was reserved for the top two wrestlers in the 125-pound weight class, Ben Houser of Wrangell and Haines’ own Hayden Jimenez.
“Everyone wanted to see (Jimenez) wrestle last,” said Hale.
According to Hale, Houser pinned Jimenez in a previous match earlier in the season. “And he pinned (Houser) with a cradle,” he said.
There was a lot of hype going into the 125-pound championship match. Jimenez said they were even and there was no clear top-ranked wrestler in his weight class. His strategy going into the match was to be aggressive. “I gotta take him down pretty quickly,” he said.
And he did, with a double-legged takedown, although Houser escaped. “I finished with the cradle. It was a great feeling in front of the home crowd, it was just like a different energy,” Jimenez said. “There’s no question who should be the number one guy.”
But just before the match ended, Houser broke his right forearm when he posted his arm to stop Jimenez from taking him down.
“Mentally, I’m still a little shook up,” Jimenez said in a recent interview with Chilkat Valley News. “That’s not how I wanted that to go.”
The injury wasn’t evident at first and the gym erupted when Houser got pinned, including coaches and Jimenez. But when the four-time regional champion turned around, Houser was still laying on the mat.
“That puts a shadow over it,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez has been the regional champion four years in a row, but his sights are set on being a state champion. It has eluded him. His freshman year, he placed fourth, sophomore year he placed third, and last year he placed second. He believes it’s fate. “I have to finish first. It’s meant to me.”
But he also believes in himself. “I know my abilities in wrestling, and if I wrestle like I did (over the weekend), then I don’t think I’m gonna have any problems at all,” Jimenez said.