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Warrior Wrestlers Pin Tournament Championship

Darren Lieb
/
KYUK

This weekend, the Bethel Warrior Boys came home with the wrestling championship from the Anchorage Christian Schools Tournament after holding off a tough Homer Mariners team to do so. The difference between first and second place was only 14.5 points.

The Bethel Girls team wrestled their way to fourth place in the team standings.

The Warrior wrestlers were tough on the mat. Bethel had more individual champions than any of the other 32 schools competing at the Anchorage Christian Schools tournament.

Among the girls wrestling at the match, Bethel’s Kelly O’Brien pinned first in the 145-pound class.

The boys were even tougher. Jarius Allain took first place in the 106-pound class, Thomas Dyment won for the 113-pound class, and Hayden Lieb championed the 145-pound class.

The Bethel boys found themselves facing stiff competition from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Blunka Blunka Jr. of New Stuyahok won first place in the 120-pound class, handing Bethel wrestler Avery Hoffman a second-place finish. Warrior Seth Smith placed third in that class.

During the weekend, a battle surfaced between Klawock High School and Bethel.

Warrior Mian Alexie-Alexander put up a tough battle in the 152-pound class, but James Heepe of Klawock took first place on a decision and Alexie-Alexander had to settle for the second spot.

Warrior Ryan Smith took home a third place standing in the 285-pound class and Elijah Lindley came back to Bethel with a fifth place showing in the 220-pound class.

Two Warrior Ladies placed. Besides Kelly O’Brien’s championship, Rae Charlier placed fourth in the 113-pound weight class.

Next Thursday Bethel will be hosting two teams in wrestling duels. Lathrop High School and South Anchorage High School will arrive to take to the mats. Serious tournament action begins Friday and Saturday at Bethel Regional High School. 

Johanna Eurich's vivid broadcast productions have been widely heard on National Public Radio since 1978. She spent her childhood speaking Thai, then learned English as a teenager and was educated at a dance academy, boarding schools and with leading intellectuals at her grandparents' dinner table in Philadelphia.