Haines middle school wrestling capped off a successful season last weekend at the Tanana Invitational in Fairbanks, considered the de facto middle school state championship in Alaska.
Four Glacier Bear athletes medaled, including eighth-graders Luke Bell and Makayla Henry, who shared the honor of being the first three-time Tanana medalists in school history, according to Haines head coach Jake Mason.
Henry was the highest finisher of all five Haines athletes attending, taking third place, after finishing in eighth place at the tournament her two previous seasons.
Henry cemented a dominant season, taking her very first loss in the semifinal after going undefeated on the season through Southeast regionals. She was able to fight back in the following match to secure fourth place.
Bell also fell in the semifinals, losing to the number one seed at the tournament.
Mason said that despite the tough opponent, Bell was close and put himself in scoring positions multiple times against what was the best competition in the state.
“He just wrestled his heart out,” Mason said, also noting that Bell lost 5-0 in the semifinal match, improving on a 10-3 loss to the same opponent earlier this season.
Bell was joined as a fourth-place finisher by his teammate and fellow eight-grader, Jonah Wray.
“He’s always been a talented wrestler,” Mason said of Wray, “but this year he’s really learned to trust himself, and that’s allowed him to wrestle at a really high level.”
Bell attended the tournament last year but did not place, so this year’s podium finish was a major improvement.
Even in what ended up a losing effort, Wray had a particularly impressive takedown of a wrestler from Mat-Su Valley-powerhouse Colony in his semi-final.
“He’s a stoic kid, but when I told him, ‘you’re one of the top four in the state of Alaska,’ he got a big smile out of that,” Mason said.
Jonah Wray’s sister, seventh-grader Lylah Wray, was another wrestler who ended the day smiling.
Mason described how early in the season, Lylah Wray didn’t regard herself as a particularly good wrestler. Cut to the end of the season, and Wray has a first place regional finish to her name, and now a sixth-place medal from last weekend’s tournament.
Mason said that the results were a reflection of a lot of work, and increased confidence – noting that Wray was beaming up on the podium, maybe even more than the first-place finisher.
With the Glacier Bears’ season over, Mason says that it has been a success by a number of measurements: by results, Haines middle schoolers placed in the highest echelon of wrestlers in the state, going up against far larger communities with year-round club wrestling infrastructure.
“It’s amazing that a tiny community like Haines can go up [to Fairbanks] and compete well in a statewide tournament,” Mason said.
He also said that this year’s Tanana performance was the best overall group of finishes in school history.
On top of that, Mason pointed to the increased confidence of athletes like Jonah and Lylah Wray, the improvement of Henry and Bell, the performance of eight-grader Milo Jensen, who competed at Tanana and took third at regionals in his very first year of wrestling, as well as countless hours of work by athletes across the program.
“What you want to do is leave everything on the mat so that you know, win or lose, you did everything you could,” Mason said. “I can confidently say they did that.”
While the actual tournament was a success, the lead up to the event was quite rocky: registration closed unexpectedly early because of a large jump in attendees, all before Haines had entered its athletes.
For a few days, the team thought they might not be able to compete.
Mason said he spoke with the tournament director and got five athlete slots for the team – fewer than the 11 athletes the team had originally planned to take.
Mason said that the registration issues this year were a reflection of the rapidly growing popularity of the sport nationwide, including in Alaska.
According to Mason, last year’s Tanana Invitational had record attendance, with about 600 athletes. This year, they capped registration when it hit 800 athletes.
“It’s definitely something we’re worried about for the future,” Mason said, noting that in the coaches’ meeting there were discussions of increasing facility size for future tournaments.
Next year’s tournament may be moved from Tanana to a bigger facility, like the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, which can accommodate more mats.