Four Unalaska Raiders will compete in the Alaska State Division II wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday in Anchorage.
Head Coach Rainier Marquez said the team is coming off some big wins from the region tournament, and they’re carrying those victories with them as they prepare for state.
“They're still really excited about taking home some region champion medals,” Marquez said. “And I think that the team titles too were the icing on the cake, because we didn't really go into regions expecting to win some region titles.”
The Raiders won three first-place medals at the regional tournament in Bethel last week. Junior Cache Henning, freshman Rogue Henning and junior Kaidon Parker were all champions in their weight classes, at 130 pounds, 152 pounds and 171 pounds, respectively. Junior Jamin Tolai placed second in his. Now, all four will compete at the state tournament at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Several other student athletes also placed individually in the regional tournament. Marquez said as a team, they placed second overall and took home the small schools region title.
He said expectations are high for this group, especially with Cache Henning as the number two seed in his weight class. Still, Marquez said he’s reminding the athletes to enjoy the tournament and soak up the experience.
“Don't be intimidated by the bright lights, big crowd, and just kind of live in the moment and have fun,” he said. “Have fun doing what we do best, which is just going out there, being aggressive.”
Marquez is a former Raider wrestler and has been a head coach for three years. He said the team has had a lot of highlights so far this year.
“This season, for sure, we've been really climbing up the ranks, collectively as a team, just getting a lot of team points and inching our way closer to maybe being able to compete for a team state title for division two, which would be a really, really big deal, something I’ve always dreamed of.”
Marquez said with five freshmen and five juniors, the young team shows a lot of promise and potential for achieving that goal.
“Especially with them being so young, the future is really, really bright,” he said. “And I think that we have a lot of potential to be able to reach that goal a lot sooner than I’d anticipated.”
The weigh-in for the state matches starts Friday at 9 a.m.
The Raiders are already in Anchorage awaiting this weekend’s tournament. Marquez said they’ll be practicing with another high school team in the meantime.