Zuniga leads Bears wrestlers at Hoonah meet
Freshman Jon Zuniga was the most outstanding wrestler for the Juneau-Douglas High School wrestling team at the Hoonah Invitational on Friday and Saturday in Hoonah.
Zuniga, wrestling at 215 pounds, won his weight class and led the way for the Crimson Bears who traveled with primarily a junior varsity lineup.
"Jon's been wrestling at the club level for the last three to four years," head wrestling coach Bob Mahon said. "He's one of those freshman who's stepped up this year."
The three Juneau varsity wrestlers who made the trip won their weight classes -- including Stephen Perry at 152 pounds, Anthony Manacio IV at 112 pounds and Willy Dodd, seeing his first action since joining the team after football, at 130 pounds.
Freshman Sungi Masarra won the 103-pound weight class for the Crimson Bears who placed 11 of 15 wrestlers in the top four and 10 in the top three spots.
"We did real well," Mahon said. "It wasn't a real powerful tournament, but it's good to get some guys some more mat time. The kids are wrestling better every day."
Teams from Hoonah, Angoon, Mount Edgecumbe, Sitka and Skagway competed against the Crimson Bears, but no team scores were kept and individual match scores were not made available.
"I think that's a thing of the past," Mahon said regarding official team scores at Southeast tournaments. "It's the one thing they sort of got away from with the dual team format. Now it's all tournaments."
Most of the Crimson Bear varsity squad took the weekend off from competition in preparation for this weekend's Alaska Christian Schools tournament in Anchorage.
"It's a big one," Mahon said about the ACS tournament. "They had 49 schools there last year and we took second, missing three weight classes. This year, we'll only be missing one."