Crimson Bears are restless to wrestle

The Juneau-Douglas High School varsity wrestlers are getting restless these days.

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For the first two weeks of the season, the Crimson Bears have been traveling with a young squad in order to get some much-needed mat time at the informal Mount Edgecumbe and Skagway Invitationals.

While the junior varsity has getting all the competition, the varsity members have been staying at home, practicing and getting in shape for a promising fall wrestling season.

But the varsity wrestlers will get their chance to officially open their season today and Saturday at the Petersburg Invitational where teams from Mount Edgecumbe, Sitka, Wrangell and, possibly, Craig and Klawock will also compete.

"The guys are real anxious," head wrestling coach Bob Mahon said. "They are looking forward to going out a getting it on. But I'm a little disappointed Ketchikan will not be there. Initially they said they would be there."

Twenty-one Crimson Bears left a day before the start of the tournament in order to scrimmage Petersburg on Thursday in a pseudo-dual-meet format.

It will be as close as the Crimson Bears will come to a true dual meet this season. Due to logistical problems, it has been difficult for the Bears to schedule traditional dual meets with other schools.

"We couldn't wrestle Petersburg in a dual format because we would just crush them," Mahon said. "They have some tough guys in the middle weight divisions but wouldn't even come close to filling all the slots. We'll try to match people up so everyone will get one match each."

Most of the Crimson Bears began practicing on Sept. 24 and the first meet in Mount Edgecumbe was just two weeks later, giving the wrestlers little time to get into wrestling shape.

"Two weeks just isn't enough time to me," Mahon said before the Mount Edgecumbe tournament. "They need some more time to get into wrestling shape."

The Crimson Bears will benefit from the return of the wrestling football players, who joined the team two weeks ago after Juneau was knocked out of the state football playoffs.

Those football players -- Justin Rasmussen (215 pounds), Jon Moore (189) and freshman Jake Ritter (171/189) will make the trip this weekend. Senior Willy Dodd (135 pounds) should join the squad next week in Sitka.

"We're pretty close to where we want to be now," Mahon said. "Next week we'll have the full team traveling to Sitka. That should be a great tournament with all the schools there."

The other wrestlers who will compete this week include: seniors Jerrod Harvey (215), Amanda Krafft (112), Anthony Manacio IV (112/119), Kyle Monti (160), Vernon Perry (119) and Courtney Wetzstein (171); juniors Isaac Cadiente (140/145), Atlin Daugherty (140), David Liliedahl (130) and Robert Vicario (189); sophomores Reid Dihle (145/152) and Dennis Hall (119); and freshmen Tanner Clark (160), Logan Harvey (103), Jon Kuterback (140), Sungi Musarra (103), Buckley Svinicki (130) and Tim Swarens (160).

Last week, a small contingency of wrestlers fared well at the Skagway Invitational. The Crimson Bears won 20 of 48 matches. Stephen Perry (152) and Logan Harvey were Juneau's MVPs, each going 4-0 in their matches. No team scores were kept.

"We did real well," Mahon said. "The junior varsity cubs had a great showing."

Jeff Kasper can be reached at jkasper@juneauempire.com.