When he walks onto the wrestling mat, Leo Polushkin of Voznesenka turns heads.

Sporting a black Nacho Libre-style mask and wearing Voznesenka's daunting singlet, featuring a blood red Cougar snarling and ready to attack, Polushkin looks more like a WWF wrestler than a high school senior.

"Some people say it gives me super powers. Some says it is cool, some say it is scary," said Polushkin after winning a 285-pound consolation round match at the Class 1-2-3A state wrestling championships at Bartlett on Friday.

Nikiski's Henry Eide was immune from Polushkin's super powers in the first round as he upset the No. 3 seed with a pin just 1:16 into the match on his way to a surprise run to today's championship match. Polushkin came back to pin Seward's Leon Hood in 46 seconds to stay alive in the consolation bracket.

Jack Black's Nacho Libre movie character was loosely based on the true story of a Catholic priest in Mexico named Fray Tormenta, who supported an orphanage by wrestling at night.

Alaska's own masked warrior wears the Nacho Libre-inspired covering for a different religious reason. He's a Russian Orthodox Old Believer and sports an impressively bushy beard.

High school wrestlers are required to be clean shaven since facial hair can be an irritant to opponents. But for religious reasons, Old Believers don't shave their facial hair, so Polushkin is exempt from shaving his face in order to compete, but he still needs to cover his facial hair.

Polushkin sported some facial hair as a freshman, but "it wasn't until he was a sophomore and started winning matches that people started complaining," Voznesenka coach Steve Wolf said.

Other Old Believers on the Voznesenka team wear smaller coverings for their chin hair, but Polushkin needed more.

"He needed to get a Nacho Libre mask. I ordered it online from a company in Mexico," Wolf said.

Polushkin, who takes the mask with him to weigh-ins to make sure it gets the OK for each meet, said it took some time to get used to wrestling with the mask.

"It felt kind of silly at first," Polushkin said. "But the more I wore it, the more I got used to it."

The Voznesenka singlet, which was designed by former school wrestler Joe Basargin, goes well with the mask. Red flames curl up the back on the outside of gold letters reading VOZ. On the front is a red Cougar that appears to be in mid-attack with claws extended and a sharp row of teeth jutting from a snarling jaw.

BROTHERLY LOVE

The toughest competition Chugiak's Grant and Ben Sullivan might face is each other.

The brothers, who are each set to wrestle for state titles today, spend most of their time in practice working on moves together. Up to a point.

"We're usually right there practicing together until one of us gets mad at the other," said Ben Sullivan, a sophomore who's seeded No. 1 at 135 pounds.

Senior Grant, the top seed at 145, said the two have forged a unique bond over more than a decade of facing off against one another.

"We've been working about 12 years, just me and him," Grant said.

Working against each other has paid big dividends. Grant Sullivan was a state champion in both his sophomore and junior seasons, while Ben was a runner-up as a freshman. But neither is willing to say who's the top Sullivan.

"He's more technical, I'm more brutal," Grant said.

The two said that any scrapes they get into off the mat are minor, and just part of growing up as rough-and-tumble siblings.

"We try not to get too mad at each other," Ben said.

Grant said he believes the two have been so successful because of their ability to push each other both on and off the mat.

"It just shows we both love the sport and we both love to work hard," Grant said.

GOING CAMPING

In August, six Bethel wrestlers went to the J Robinson camp in Oregon.

On Friday, five of the six reached the state tournament semifinals.

One of them was senior Randy Hanson, who is undefeated and the No. 1 seed at 125 pounds. He went to the camp two years ago and won a state championship at 119 pounds last season.

"It's a great camp. It teaches you how to work hard and how to take it to the next level," Hanson said, putting a hand near his shoulder to show where he was at before camp then raising it above his head to show where he was at afterwards.

"It is all about work ethic. After that camp, our practices are nothing," Hanson said.

Junior Zach Pleasant, the top seed at 103 pounds, also attended the camp along with Mario Kuqo, Seth O'Brien and brothers Trevour and Ryan Chavez.

"I learned a lot of moves, a lot of better moves," Pleasant said.

MORE THAN A MOTTO

Wrestlers and their fans proudly don shirts with slogans that reveal the dedication and passion needed to be good at the sport.

Among the slogans seen Friday: "Pain is Temporary. Pride is Forever." and "Born to Fight. Train to win."

The Dillingham Wolverines wore shirts declaring that their mascot, and by extension their athletes, as "Pound-for-pound the baddest animal alive."

USING THEIR NOODLES

Traditionally a rolled-up towel is used by volunteers to tap referees during a match to let them know when a period has ended.

At Bartlett, the volunteers were using foam swimming noodles, cut to various lengths.

HAZARDOUS WASTE

A cardboard bin sits near the scoring table at each of the four mats at Bartlett and Chugiak.

The bins are labeled for bio waste only, and among the things they're used for is disposing of bloodied Kleenex.