Cordova High School’s wrestling squad opened the season with a strong performance in Valdez. At the Throwdown in Snowtown tournament Oct. 21-22, they notched three first place finishes, a pair of second places, and one third place to come in third overall in team points behind Palmer and Redington.
“We wrestled really well,” said Coach Seth Balint. “Our team looked locked in to start the season off.”
“We had two ninth graders take first with Trent Dundas in the 103-pound class and Gunnar Phillips pinning his way through the 112-pound class,” said Balint.
Tenth grader Ryder Phillips also came away with a first-place medal at 119 pounds, with tenth grader Blake Bailey placing third. Seniors Arianna Ryan and Zach Bergford both placed second as well.
“This is a good start for the team, we proved we can compete with the best of them,” added Balint. “But we have more work to do, every tournament from here on out gets tougher and tougher.”
Cordova has tournaments at Nikiski, ACS, and Palmer before regionals on Dec. 8-9, and the State Tournament on Dec. 15-16.
The complete roster, by weight class:
103: Trent Dundas
112: Gunnar Davis
119: Ryder Phillips and Micheal Harris
125: Blake Bailey and Sebastien Hidalgo
130: Levi Pearson
145: Karl Griffith
160: Jacob Hamberger and Colin Chappell
171: Zach Bergford
189: Vincent Nothstine
Girls, 165: Arianna Ryan
