By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Young wrestlers representing Blatchley Middle School earned fourth place overall at the regional tournament in Juneau over the weekend. Four Huskies snagged first place in their weight class, and in total 11 placed within their brackets.
Lightweight wrestler J.D. Keith took the championship title in a crowded bracket at 84 pounds. Looking back, he was happy with his performance this season.
“Out of this whole season, I’m undefeated. And there’s only two matches that I didn’t pin them. I pinned everyone else except for my last two in Juneau,” the middle schooler said.
He already has ideas for future improvement.
“Maybe better setups for taking shots and stuff. I go in there and at least get through, but it will take a sec for me to actually get it because I didn’t do a thing right. So I’ll have to work for it more,” J.D. said at practice on Tuesday.
Along with the sport itself, J.D. enjoys the competitive atmosphere.
“It’s like a sport that I’m actually good at… It’s fun at tournaments and stuff because you get to go places.”
His brother, Jene Keith, took first in the 77-pound weight class. Boyd Branch finished in fourth place at 91 pounds, and Bay Twaddle took sixth in the 110-pound weight class. Killian Hammock won the championship at 122 pounds, while Aiden Andrews finished fifth at 126 pounds. Junior Jimmy won the 132-pound competition, and Gunnar Ojala took eighth at 140-pounds.
Alongside Gunnar, Jayson Miller competed in the 140-pound contest.
“It was OK, I got fifth in my weight bracket,” he said. This is only his second year as a wrestler, whereas J.D. Keith has been on the mat for the past eight years.
Jayson hopes to “work on taking better shots… better stand-ups too.”
Brock Callahan won third place at 148 pounds.
“I feel like I did pretty good against most of my competitors,” Brock said. “And I’m in sixth grade, and most of them are in eighth grade… It was a little bit scary, but it was exciting.”
Like his teammates, he’d like to improve his ability to take shots. He’s wrestled since he was a first grader.
“I like having a competition and I like contact sports,” he said.
Prior to the regional tournament, the team worked to hammer home the basics, Blatchley coach Mike Callahan told the Sentinel.
The Blatchley Huskies pose at the middle school regional wrestling tournament, over the weekend in Juneau. The BMS team secured fourth place out of 11 teams present. (Photo provided by Mike Callahan)
“I said we were going to… work on our bread and butter, and we brought our bread and butter to the tournament,” he said. “(Some) kids surprised us with a few things that they remembered at practices and things went our way. They wrestled hard – can’t ask for anything much more than that.”
In the fall, Callahan coaches the Sitka High wrestling team.
He was grateful for the hospitality received from Juneau’s Floyd Dryden Middle School and its wrestling coach, Ken Brown.
The state tournament will be in early March in Tenana. Four Blatchley athletes plan to attend, the coach said.
“They put in a lot of hard work and it showed up in the end,” Callahan said.
