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Seman Places 5th At State Wrestling Championship

KUCB

Unalaska’s wrestling team wrapped up the season at the state championships this weekend, but Coach Brian Whittern says the weekend didn’t go as they hoped.

“There were lots of close losses," Whittern said. "Lots of disappointing losses. Lots of heartbreak for the kids. It just didn’t go the way we hoped.”

N.J. Seman was the lone member of the team to place in the tournament. He took 5th in his weight class.

Whittern says even though that’s not the result Seman was looking for, placing at state is a big achievement.

“He lost by two points in the last five seconds to the guy who got second," Whittern said. "He lost in overtime to the guy who got third. So [Seman] feels maybe like it might have been possible to have done better. But he’s still 5th and that’s quite an accomplishment.”

Along the way, Seman had to wrestle and eliminate his teammate, sophomore Seth Henning.

Even after this weekend's results, Whittern has high hopes for the future.

“I think we will hopefully end up with more kids qualifying for states next year than we did this year," Whittern said. "And hopefully we'll have more kids placing next year than did this year.”

Four of the state qualifiers were seniors, but Whittern says there’s a lot of talent that’ll be back next year.

Zoë Sobel reported for KUCB from 2016 until 2019. She returned to KUCB after a year living in Nepal and Malaysia as a Luce Scholar. She then returned to KUCB as a ProPublica reporter August of 2020 through August of 2021.
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