newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The short high school wrestling season begins to reach its crescendo this weekend with the Denali Conference and Mid Alaska Conference championships scheduled for Saturday at West Valley High School.

Competition is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., with the championship finals taking place at about 6 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony at 7:30 p.m.

The host West Valley Wolfpack, the defending champion Lathrop Malemutes, North Pole Patriots and Houston Hawks will battle it out for the Mid Alaska Conference title.

Lathrop, the runner-up at last year’s Class 4A state championships, and North Pole figure to be the teams to beat. The Malemutes finished ahead of the Patriots in several early season tournaments, but North Pole captured the team title at the recent West Valley Invitational.

The defending champion Malemutes are gunning for the 17th regional title in 19 seasons under coach Tom Ritchie Sr., who will be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame during the state tournament later this month.

“We are excited because we are challenged to achieve two important goals this year at Lathrop,” Ritchie said in an e-mail to the News-Miner earlier this week.

“We will have 100 percent of the kids in our program graduate on time in May, and this could be our 17th regional/conference championship in 19 years,” Ritchie said. “We are very proud of our kids and the focus they have shown this year.”

Ritchie expects a fierce battle with the Patriots for the conference crown.

“I really think it’s going to be close,” he said. “It’s going to come down to how much sacrifice and effort our kids put into it.”

The top three wrestlers in each weight class advance to the Class 4A state championships on Dec. 12-13 at Chugiak.

As many as 12 schools could compete in the Denali Conference Championships that features Class 1A-2A-3A schools from Cordova to Tok to Cantwell.

Defending champion Cordova, Valdez and host Hutchison figure to be the three schools that will battle it out for the team title.

“It should be a good battle between the three of us,” said Hutchison coach Jeff Sagers in a telephone interview Thursday evening. “We’ve all been real close in tournaments this year, so it should be a good battle to see who comes out on top.”

Sagers will be counting on a quartet of wrestlers to come through for the Hawks — David Scerbak (125 pounds), Rudy Martinez (135), and captains Jeremy Jackson (189) and James Roderigues (215).

“We’ll definitely need some guys to get victories in the first round and stay on the winning side, but we’ll also need guys come through for us in the wrestle backs on the consolation side,” Sagers said.

Among the other top contenders are the likes of Justin Allen of Valdez at 160 and Tok’s Chase Kaus at 215.

In addition to Cordova, Valdez and Hutchison, other schools scheduled to compete on Saturday include Cantwell, Delta Junction, Eielson, Glennallen, Kenny Lake, Nenana, Slana and Tok.

The top three finishers in each weight bracket advance to the Class 1A-2A-3A state championships on Dec. 12-13 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage.

Four mats will be used on Saturday during the Denali Conference prelims (9:30 a.m.), MAC and Denali quarterfinals (10 a.m.), MAC and Denali semifinals (noon), Denali consolation prelims (1:30 p.m.), and the MAC and Denali consolation rounds (2 p.m.)

Two mats will be used for the consolation (4 p.m.) and championship (6 p.m.) finals.