Colony senior wins title at Washington wrestling tournament

PALMER — Less than a month after earning his first high school state title, Colony senior Caleb Hopkins continued his winning ways. Hopkins won the 182-pound class during The Gut Check tournament in Bremerton, Washington, last week.

“It’s a high quality tournament. It’s a lot of fun to go down there,” Colony head coach Todd Hopkins said.

The tournament is billed as one of the toughest high school meets in the Pacific Northwest, drawing some of the top teams from Washington and Oregon. Hopkins was one of three Knights to make the trip. Freshman Jared Hopkins and junior Marcus Riedlinger also competed. All three placed in the top 6.

“I was impressed with that,” Todd Hopkins said. “The team that won it only had six place. We scored almost half the team points that team did with three guys.”

Jared Hopkins (106 pounds) and Riedlinger (113) each finished sixth.

Caleb Hopkins, a three-time Alaska state finalist and 2017 4A state champion at 182, finished 5-0 during the two-day tourney. The Colony senior pinned his first three opponents before edging Derrick Platt of Yelm (Washington) 8-6 in extra time. In the championship Hopkins beat Masin Sabin of White River (Washington) 8-6. Sabin was a Washington Class 3A state runner-up at Bonney Lake (Washington) last season.

Todd Hopkins said Caleb jumped to big leads in each of his final two matches and held on for the win.

“We haven’t really been conditioning,” Todd Hopkins said. “We’ve wrestled once or twice a week, and they’ve done stuff on their own.”

Alaska’s prep wrestling season ends in December. Athletes in Washington are right in the middle of their season.

After receiving a first-round bye, Jared Hopkins earned consecutive wins before falling in the championship semifinals. Hopkins earned two more wins in the consolation round, but suffered a 9-1 loss to Unel Garcia of Wapato (Washington) in the fifth-place match.

Riedlinger, who earned his first 4A state title in December, won his first-round match. After a loss in the second round, Riedlinger cranked through four straight wins to help set up a chance to wrestle for fifth. Boira Mokmouen of Lincoln (Washington) slipped by Riedlinger 1-0 in the fifth-place match.

The three Colony wrestlers finished with a combined record of 14-6 in the tournament.

Todd Hopkins said he’s happy to see his wrestlers eager to compete during Alaska’s offseason.

“I’m excited for them, showing they want to get better,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins said he encourages his wrestler to compete in tournaments and camps during the offseason. It’s also good to see different competition, he said.

“A lot of times we get stuck wrestling the same kids five, six, seven times a year,” Hopkins said. “These are all new kids with different styles.”

After each of his three wrestlers in the tournament placed, Hopkins said he’s eager to bring more of his squad to the tournament next year.

“A full team down there, we’d have been right in the mix to win the team title,” Hopkins said. “One of my goals is to try to get the whole team, a full lineup to go.”

Hopkins said he is also very proud of how well his three athletes represented Colony High School and Alaska. The Knights earned the tournament’s sportsmanship award.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.