Cordova’s Stelios Gialopsos finished third at the 1A/2A/3A State Championships in Anchorage Dec. 15-17. Wrestling in the heavyweight division of 220 pounds and above, the CHS senior won four matches and lost only once, to eventual first place finisher Marshall Pinard of SuValley.
“Stelios had some great matches”, said CHS Coach Ron Horton. “Plus he battled back from an elbow injury early in the tournament.
Gialopsos entered the tournament seeded #4, with a 23-9 won-lost record in only his second year of wrestling. Pinard came in with a 23-1 record that gave him the #1 seed.
“Stelios is a stocky 270 pounder”, said Horton. “Pinnard was much bigger than him. It was quite a match.”
Fifty-two teams participated in the tournament, and several sent full squads of 15 wrestlers. Bethel was one of them, and finished first in the overall team standings. Cordova, with only 5 wrestlers making it to State, finished 18th.
“Considering the number of wrestlers we had to compete against, I’m really happy with how well we did”, said Horton. “The fact that 3A schools of up to 500 kids are in the same tournament made it especially challenging.”
“Senior Zach Hamberger also went pretty far”, said Horton. “He had four matches, in the very tough 160 pound weight class.” Timmy Woo, a defending state champ from 3A Homer, eventually won that Division.
“I’m so proud of this team,” said Horton, who has been a mainstay of wrestling programs in Cordova for 27 years. “There was great diversity on this year’s team. We had fun. We had total cohesion. We were a team. This is the very core of sport.”
