Mariners finish fifth at Round Robin Rumble

• Cordova cruises to tourney win

by Aaron Selbig
Homer Tribune

When is a warm-up not a warm-up?
For the Homer Mariner wrestling team, it’s when your warm-up meet – to get prepared for the annual Round Robin Rumble the next day – is against the Cordova Wolverines, one of the better small-school teams in Alaska. The Wolverines, who would go on to score 136 points at Saturday’s Rumble and edge out Nikiski for first place, won 10 of 14 matches against the Mariners Friday, beating them 56-24 in the head-to-head dual meet.
And they did it in the dark.
Or at least in the familiar lighting scheme – where all lights are turned off but for a single bright spotlight over the mat – that often graces Friday night matches at Alice Witte Gymnasium.
Down four wrestlers – including team captain “Hurricane” Mitch Wyatt – due to family trips and illness, the M’s were forced to forfeit matches in the 112, 240 and 171-lb. weight classes. That left Homer’s chances for victory riding on the shoulders of Eli Garvey (103-lb.) and DJ Marsengill (119), who both won hard-fought matches, against Alvin Velasco and John Tabilas respectively.
At the Rumble on Saturday, the Mariners and the Wolverines were joined by teams from Soldotna, Kenai, Nikiski, Ninilchik and Voznesenka in a day-long tournament sponsored by the Best Western Bidarka Inn.
Although no Homer wrestlers were able to take home a gold medal in their division, three of them – Garvey, Wyatt (152) and Larry Croft (189) – won silver.
Garvey came close to a gold medal when he found himself leading the third-ranked wrestler in the state – Kenai’s Hope Steffensen – in the second period.
“Garvey … scored on an escape in the second period and was riding Steffensen tough before his hand(s) came together – which is a technical violation – and tied the match at one apiece,” said Homer Head Coach Chris Perk. “Then, with only five seconds remaining, Steffensen was able to stand up and score an escape and win a gold medal.”
Wyatt, wrestling for the first time in the 152-lb. division, won three matches before losing 8-4 in the finals to Cordova’s Blake Platt – the third-ranked wrestler in the state. Wyatt still leads the team with 22 wins on the season.
Croft, also competing in a new division for the first time, took down Sam Bennett of Ninilchik, Drew Raymond of Homer and D’Angelo Cloud of Kenai before falling in the finals match to Cordova’s McKyer Trumblee. With the three wins, Croft improved his season record to 14-6.
The wins propelled Homer to a fifth-place finish overall with 68 team points, just two behind fourth-place Soldotna.
The Mariners will next travel to Skyview High Friday for a two-day series of dual meets.

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Posted by Newsroom on Nov 11th, 2009 and filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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