The oddest feature of the prep sports calendar was on display Saturday at Kenai Central High School, when the Homer wrestling team accepted the team championship at the Luke Spruill Memorial Tournament just as word was filtering through the gym that Homer’s football team had fallen 20-14 in the Division III state championship to Barrow.
The Mariners wrestlers scored 82.5 points to beat the 79.5 of Soldotna, which later in the day would win the Division II state football championship. Nikiski was third with 53 points, while Kenai had 43.5
“We’re still proud of the football team,” said Homer coach Bubba Wells, whose son, Kyle, is a lineman with the squad. “Coach (Walter) Love has done an amazing job with them.”
The tournament is named for Spruill, who graduated Kenai Central as a two-time state champion and was killed in a Bristol Bay fishing accident in 2004 at the age of 27.
The event kicks off the wrestling season on the Kenai Peninsula.
