Daigle’s big brother and Mariner captain Simeon, was home sick, and most of his younger teammates were competing at the JV Robbie Cupp Open Tournament in Anchorage.
Ben Daigle cruised through the early rounds, scoring a majority decision over Dylan Hoch of Anchorage Christian School and beating West’s Chris Hernandez 8-3.
In the semifinals, Daigle squeezed by Dillingham’s Joe Hunt 6-4 in overtime, before dropping his only match of the weekend to Kotzebue’s Kevin Hansen.
In the 119-pound weight class, Tom Appelhanz defeated teammate Robby Brymer 12-5 early in the tournament and Tris Brymer scored three wins, including a technical fall against Lathrop’s Zach Gonzales, but was shut out by third place finisher Justin Tumbaga from Nikiski.
Head Wrestling Coach Chris Perk said Brymer’s win over Soldonta’s Erick Morris in the third round stole the show.
“Our plan was to get takedowns and eliminate the unorthodox style that Morris has,” Perk said. “So we were able to minimize mistakes by taking him down and letting him escape. It was tight all match but Tris won 13-11.”
Last weekend Morris pinned Brymer.
There was a lot of tough competition at the Bob Bailey Tournament, Perk said.
“It’s the toughest we will see all season,” he said. “The small schools are all in shape and know a ton more moves. We are very young and inexperienced, but will soon be at that level, so we are sending most of our wrestlers to the JV tournament to get mat time against equal competition.”
In JV action, Brandon Weaver finished fourth in the 152-pound weight class finishing with a 3-2 record, while Ely Roche finished third at 215 pounds with three wins and one loss. Tad Martin and Igor Muraro also picked up their first wins of the season.
On Thursday, Homer beat Bethel in a dual meet 42-38 and lost to Anchorage Christian School 54-19.
Homer travels to the North South Tournament in Wasilla this weekend.
Perk said he hopes to see Simeon back in action there.
Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@ homernews.com.
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
