Unalaska Wrestling

Unalaska High School junior Cache Henning came within one point of winning the Alaska state wrestling title for the 130-pound weight class last weekend. Henning faced Mt. Edgecumbe wrestler Elden Andrew in the championship match at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage. Despite the narrow loss, Unalaska Head Coach Rainier Marquez said Henning’s second-place finish is a major accomplishment.

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.

In this episode of "Island Interviews," Coach Rainier Marquez sat down with KUCB's Raider Sports reporter Matheas Lopez to discuss how the wrestling tournament went. He also talked about a new wrestling organization called “Trey’s Takedown Shoes Initiative” that aims to help get more students involved in the sport by buying them new wrestling shoes.

The Unalaska Raider Wrestling team competed in their first matches of the season at the Throwdown in Snowtown Tournament in Valdez last month. At the two-day tournament, sophomore Cache Henning took second place in the 125-pound weight category. Henning competed against athletes from Houston and Cordova, before making his way to the finals, where he fell short of first place with a final score of 6 to 11.

Unalaska’s high school wrestling team competed at the Bethel Scramble earlier this month. It was a two-day tournament with a total of 16 schools and over 190 wrestlers in attendance.Because the COVID-19 pandemic halted close-contact sports, it was also the first time in roughly two years that the island’s wrestling team had traveled to compete.

Unalaska’s swim team had planned to host its first and only home swim meet of the season last Saturday, but, unfortunately, high winds kept their Valdez competitors from flying in.The UCSD student athletes weren’t discouraged though and showed up ready to compete, accompanied on the sidelines by loud cheers from school staff, teachers, parents and friends.