Colony High wins state wrestling title

The Colony Knights wrestling squad took home the Division I team title at the state championships on Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, scoring 248.5 points in the tournament.

Head coach Todd Hopkins said he wanted to credit his wrestlers for their resilience and work ethic at the tournament, and all season.

“There’s a lot of matches that stand out in terms of the state tournament, just people coming in unseeded and placing high,” he said. “I think we just kept improving and then it happened.”

Hopkins said the team had to overcome some adversity in the past month. In a meet in Kodiak just over a week ago, the squad got stuck there for six days because of a bad winter storm.

“You know, the kids are sleeping on the floor in the basement of a church,” he said. “And just to come back and to win the state tournament was a big deal, I was concerned about how tired they might be.”

Colony’s Matthew Mitchell, 125, and Elijah Larsen, 145, both took home individual titles at Saturday’s meet. Carter Silva, 135, and Elias Cordell, 119, came in second.

Mitchell won a first place decision over East Anchorage’s Kenton Cooke and scored 27.5 team points. Larsen overcame Soldotna’s Isaac Chavarria in a major decision and scored 29 team points for Colony.

Silva dropped his first place match in quadruple over time, 2-1, to South Anchorage’s Aaron Concepcion.

Hopkins said he was proud of the team title, especially since the Knights weren’t favored to win earlier in the season.

“I’m just excited about colony wrestling, and it’s a great group of kids,” he said.

Also for the Knights, Blake Harris placed 5th at 103, Asher Clayton placed 3rd at 112, Evan Holmes placed 3rd and Ethan Osborn took 6th in the 130, Nolan Gallagher placed 5th at 160, Gabriel Beaudoin took 5th at 189 and Daniel Van Slyke came in 2nd at 285.

The Colony girls team came in second place overall with 98 points.

Grayce Stigen, 119, and Kaitlyn Cottrell, 145, led the lady Knights, each taking home 3rd place individual titles.

Also for the girls, Nevaeh Maxon placed 5th at 125, Sarah Callender placed 6th at 135, Kalayia Fawcett placed 4th at 160, and Gia Jones placed 5th at 189.

In the girls division, Redington came in 8th with 59 team points.

Abe Salmon, the Redington coach, said the team overcame another tough season of wrestling to end with an impressive run at the state title.

“We had some highs and some lows and (we’re) definitely still struggling with the COVID stuff,” Salmon said after the tournament Saturday. “ It’s just making life difficult, you can’t really run the program quite the way you’d like to in a normal year.”

Despite all the challenges, he said the Huskies had a great showing.

Twyla Anderstrom led the Redington girls with her individual state title in the 189. She won by major decision of Valdez High’s Alyvia Askren-Weber and scored 27 team points for Redington.

Anderstrom said her win on Saturday was unbelievable, and that she focused on maintaining positive energy before her match.

“I really wanted to be the first state champ at my school, so I was just thinking about that,” she said. “As soon as I stepped on the mat, I like dominate.”

The senior said she’s proud of her development over her high school wrestling career.

“I’m proud of how much I’ve grown, just because this is only my fourth year and taking a state title— I’m pretty proud of that,” Anderstrom said.

Her coach attributed her success on Saturday to her work ethic.

“She’s been a four-time placer (and) just really put in a lot of extra hard work, in the offseason and in the mornings and stuff,” Salmon said.

Also placing for the lady Huskies was Mya Campbell, 119, who came in 4th. She scored 18 team points.

In the Division II tournament Redington placed second with 152 team points, just behind first place finisher Bethel High School, with 158 points.

Salmon said he was impressed with the team finish this year.

“We had a good year, best we’ve ever had in the program, so that’s awesome,” he said. “We were right there at the end, just a couple little things go different and we’re standing on top of the podium instead of Bethel.”

Myles Campbell, 112, won by major decision over Delta’s Oran Brown to clinch his individual state title for Redington. He scored the team 29 points.

“Myles Campbell is just a really talented good kid,” Salmon said after he won the championship for Redington.

Also leading for the Huskies in the Division II tournament was Charlie Severance.

He placed 2nd in the 160, after Wrangell’s Ryan Rooney came from a 10-2 deficit to beat Severance by fall.

Salmon said the finish was a heartbreaker.

“A bummer there in the finals,” he said. “I’ve been coaching him for seven years and that was a tough one.”

Also for the Huskies, Caleb Metcalf placed 2nd at 103, Braxton Metcalf placed 6th at 103, Thomas Swalling placed 4th at 135, Wyatt Milnes placed 4th at 171, and Harley Stokes placed 3rd at 189.

Palmer placed 5th overall in the Division I tournament with 147 team points.

AJ Woodfork led the Moose, claiming an individual state title after winning his match against Lathrop’s Aaron Johnson by fall. He scored 30 team points.

Woodfork said he was nervous to take Johnson in his final match.

“I haven’t wrestled him before,” he said. “And so I walked in there knowing that it was going to be a good one.”

He said he wanted to give special recognition to his parents, his best friend and his teammates.

Raking in another first place title in the state championship for Palmer was Kael Salisbury at 103. He won his decision over Soldotna’s Jacob Strausbaugh and scored 26 team points.

Also for Palmer, Cody Vansiegman placed 4th at 125, Kayson Asay placed 5th at 145, Preston Long placed 2nd at 171, Lucas Frank placed 6th at 189, and Carter Paulson placed 6th at 215.

Trinity Pendergrass led the girls tournament for Palmer, scoring 30 team points after beating Lathrop’s Kierstyn Bockert by fall.

Avery Long placed 4th at 125 and Kaylee Reich placed 3rd at 125 for the lady Moose.

Palmer girls came in 5th overall with 71 points.

Wasilla was 6th in the Division I tournament with 128.5 team points.

Tyler Floss came out on top for the Warriors, placing 2nd in the 130 and scoring 23 team points.

Also for Wasilla, Chas Foss placed 5th at 112, Elijah Allen placed 4th at 112, Fred Elvsaas placed 3rd at 140, Deshawn Campbell placed 3rd at 152, and Bradley Keeney placed 4th at 171.

Houston had 23 team points in the Division II tournament. Keldin Nicoll placed 4th at 189 and scored 14 points for the Hawks.