Standing tall at state

Aloha’s Tanner Krahel battles to second, leads Warriors to 10th

By Miles Vance

The Beaverton Valley Times, Mar 5, 2010, Updated Mar 5, 2010

Miles Vance / Beaverton Valley Times

TITLE MATCH – Aloha senior Tanner Krahel (left) battles Clackamas’ Cody Mansur in the Class 6A state championship match at 215 pounds on Saturday at Memorial Coliseum.

PORTLAND — Just one week after getting knocked off by Southridge in the Metro League district tournament, Aloha’s wrestling team went back to work.

Back to the wrestling room. Back to the weight room. Back to the hard work and humility that have made the Warriors one of the Metro’s best. That hard work paid off at last week’s Class 6A state tournament, held Feb. 25-27 at Memorial Coliseum. Aloha sent five wrestlers into the tournament quarterfinals, notched four tournament placewinners and ended up 10th overall with 71 points.

Roseburg sent eight wrestlers into the tournament finals and dominated the team scoring to win with 298.5 points while Newberg was second at 169 and North Medford third at 120.

For Aloha, its drive into the top 10 was powered by senior team leaders Tanner Krahel and Pat Neal, Krahel battling all the way to the tournament championship before settling for second place at 215 pounds, while Neal rallied from a semifinal loss and came back to place third at 130.

“I give it all to the coaches and a lot to the players,” Krahel said of his team’s success. “We’re kind of based on that blue collar work — hard work pays off.”

“I always remind myself that four years ago we were the worst team” in the Metro League, Neal said. “It was hard to even get a guy to state, much less place. And now we’ve got a guy in the finals and I worked my way back up to third.”

Krahel’s trajectory mirrored that of his team, his triumphant exit at state coming just a week after placing second to Beaverton’s Tyree Barton at district. At state, Krahel — seeded second thanks to his seventh-place state finish in 2009 – won three straight matches to reach the tournament finals, then ran head-long into senior defending state champion Cody Mansur of Clackamas.

While Krahel didn’t win his final, he sure gave Mansur a run for his money. Mansur scored a takedown 58 seconds into the first round, but Krahel escaped just 16 seconds later and trailed 2-1 at the end of the round.

Krahel then notched an escape 20 seconds into the second round and rolled into the final two minutes of his high school career tied at 2-2 in the 6A state championship.

With Mansur starting the final round in the “down” position, Krahel opened the third by trying to turn the Clackamas star to his back for what might have been the winning points. But Mansur used Krahel’s momentum and strength against him, reversed the Aloha senior 21 seconds into final round and grabbed a 4-2 lead.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit