The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé wrestling team had a season-inspiring outing over the weekend at Hoonah, holding their own against teams from Haines, Hoonah, Ketchikan, Metlakatla, Mt. Edgecumbe, Petersburg and Wrangell on the mats.
Wrestling in a series that combined round-robin matches progressing to daily bracket settings to ensure multiple matches, JDHS had three grapplers who earned true championships across the three days and a number of winning finishes by many Crimson Bears.
“We ended up wrestling three days,” JDHS head coach Adam Messmer said. “We pretty much ended up with three champions in the spotlight Saturday night. And we got a lot of wrestling in. They are tired. The first tournament, you know, you get beat up a little bit. Their knees were a little bit raw because they were soft but that will start turning into rawhide here soon.”
JDHS brought 18 wrestlers to the tournament and they wrestled a combined 135 matches, posting a combined 86 wins and 49 losses. Messmer noted it was the first tournament hosted by Hoonah in 15 years.
To earn the spotlight, Crimson Bears senior Justus Darbonne pinned his way through the 152-pound division, including a first-period fall over sophomore teammate Jed Davis in the title match.
“Justus was wrestling one of our guys in the finals,” Messmer said.
To earn their spotlights, Crimson Bears sophomore Camden Messmer cruised through the 119-pound division and pinned classmate Tristen Ridgeway for the title, and sophomore Landyn Dunn cleaned up the 125-pound division and pinned Mt. Edgecumbe’s Evan Andrew for the title.
“Camden wrestled against one of our guys in the final so we had a few multiple wrestlers in the finals that are the same weight,” coach Messmer said. “Tristan has really turned it up basically since regionals last year. He’s wrestling really well and part of that is he is wrestling against Camden a lot. I think the most special thing is Camden and Landyn aren’t in the same bracket anymore, so that was pretty nice. Landyn had a tough match against the Mt. Edgecumbe kid in the finals and won. Camden might have had one match that went to the second round…The three guys we had place at state last season were the three that won in the spotlight on Saturday, but we definitely have guys on the team that are chomping on their heels.”
JDHS freshman Nixie Schooler won the girls 107-pound division, pinning Ketchikan’s Gabbie Bueno and placed second in the 114-pound division to Wrangell’s Hailey Cook.
Senior Colton Cummins placed second at 135 pounds, including a technical fall over eventual bracket Titan Linne of Ketchikan in an early round.
Freshman Toriana Johnson placed second in the girls 120-pound division, defeating Ketchikan’s Katelynn Kimberley and falling to defending region champion senior Della Churchill of Wrangell, who finished third last season in state.
“For Della being a returning champion and Toriana a freshman that is fairly new to wrestling, Toriana did extremely well,” coach Messmer said. “There was one point we thought she was actually going to have Della on her back. That is what will make Toriana a lot better is wrestling higher-caliber wrestlers like Della.”
Freshman Josh Beedle placed second in the 112-pound division losing to Mt. Edgecumbe senior Ben Balluta. Beedle had defeated Balluta earlier in the trip.
“Two days before in the first round robin Josh beat the senior so that was pretty awesome,” coach Messmer said.
Junior Marlin Cox placed second at 140 pounds, falling to Ketchikan’s defending state champ senior Gage Massin. Cox had defeated Massin the first day of tourney action.
“That was pretty exciting,” coach Messmer said. “Gage ended up taking their next two matches. This is going to be a fun pairing to watch over the course of the season.”
Sophomore Darren Foster placed second at 189 pounds, falling to Mt. Edgecumbe’s Richard Didrickson.
Senior Denali Schijvens placed third at 285 pounds with a technical fall over Ketchikan’s Rocco Piazza. Schijvens lost a close match to division winner James Stickler of Haines.
Senior Carvin Hass placed third at 160 pounds by major decision over Mt. Edgecumbe’s Jorge Sandoval.
Junior Oliver Able placed third at 130 pounds with a fall over Metlakatla’s Sea Sanford.
Freshman Hugo Rank placed fourth at 189 pounds, falling in the third-place match to Metlakatla’s Brody Booth.
Sophomore William Dapcevich placed seventh at 171 pounds, winning his first match over Ketchikan’s Landon Houtcooper and his final match over Petersburg’s Edgar Olsen.
Sophomore Gage Keller placed seventh at 135 pounds, including a loss to eventual champion Titan Linne of Ketchikan.
Junior Samuel Buttner placed eighth at 160 pounds, which included hard-fought losses against bracket-winner Carlos Sandoval of Mt. Edgecumbe and bracket runner-up Everett Meissner of Wrangell.
“Everybody that went got a win,” coach Messmer said. “Even all my first-year wrestlers, you know, a couple kids that came off cross country or another sport that had never set foot on a wrestling mat before and have had seven practices basically before this first tournament and everybody got a win.”
Referees and coaches at the tournament were impressed by the quality of matches.
“They all said, and I agree, we have never seen this high of caliber of wrestlers at the first match of the season before,” Messmer said. “And I have been involved in the sport for many years. And I think we are well ahead of where we have been in previous years at a first tournament. It’s just at every tournament you can find something you can do better, and this first tournament we have a few more things to work on…For some kids who have had success it is hard to find things to work on if you are dominating teammates in practice until they go to face some stiffer competition. The tournaments expose those little weaknesses and gives us something to work on for the following week.”
The Crimson Bears will host a meet this coming weekend, Friday and Saturday, in the George Houston Gymnasium. It is expected that all Southeast teams will be represented with over 240 wrestlers competing.
A round-robin type “Scramble” bracket will begin the competition in each weight division on Friday and from those results, wrestlers will be put into smaller brackets within those weight divisions to grapple for individual titles and placings that will culminate late Saturday.
“This guarantees that all wrestlers will get multiple matches,” Messmer said. “It is going to be a lot to get through in two days but I’m sure we are going to make it happen.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé freshman Josh Beedle, shown winning a match against Ketchikan during the Hoonah Invitational, placed second at the meet on Saturday. (Photo courtesy JDHS wrestling)
