Knights crowned 2019 state wrestling champs

ANCHORAGE — The Colony Knights won the ASAA/First National Bank Division I State Wrestling Championships by a whopping margin at the Alaska Airlines Center on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus on Saturday.

The Knights crowned three individual state champions, and captured their seventh state title overall, the third under head coach Todd Hopkins. Not only did the Knights take home the state title, but Hopkins was named Coach of the Year for the tournament and Thresa Savo was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the girls’ tournament.

Savo defeated top-seeded Jamiezon Garcia of East Anchorage in the 103-pound final with a miraculous comeback to become the Knights first female state champion.

Trailing Garcia 4-1, Savo scored on an escape and takedown to tie the match and send it to overtime before earning the state title with a 6-4 victory.

“I was just thinking how bad I wanted it,” said Savo.

Vincent Cramer dominated his opponent in the final match at 152 ponds, defeating Dennis Taylor of Soldotna 14-5.

“I’m just really good on my feet so I thought just keep taking him down, getting high scores and that’d be a state title,” said Cramer.

Cramer routinely let go of Taylor, giving up the escape point only to take him down again and again en route to a state title.

Cramer had placed in the top three each of his first three years at state.

“It feels like the best thing I ever did. All the work finally paid off,” said Cramer.

Following in the footsteps of his two older brothers Caleb and Levi, Jared Hopkins became the third Hopkins sibling to earn a state wrestling title when he pinned South’s Niko Mayo in the 135-pound final while leading 4-0, 3 minutes and 29 seconds into the bout.

Hopkins had attended a wrestling camp at Campbell University where Caleb and Levi are on the Division 1 Campbell Camels wrestling team where Caleb said his younger brother learned what he needed to do to become a state champ.

“He saw what he needed to do to go get better, he saw what he wanted to become and he’s becoming it so I’m proud of him,” said Caleb Hopkins.

All three Hopkins brothers earned two runner-up finishes and one title. Just a junior, Jared Hopkins was wrestling in his third state title match. After losing to Mayo in the 125-pound final in 2018, Hopkins dominated the bout to earn his first title.

“He wrestled really well and I’m proud of him,” Levi Hopkins said.

With three state-title winning sons, the Hopkins family has come a long way on the mat. Todd said that when his boys first became interested in wrestling, they did not win at all during their first year.

“It feels really good to come out and finally get one,” Jared Hopkins said.

The Colony Knights not only picked up Coach of the Year, Most Outstanding Wrestler and the overall team title at the state meet, but did so in commanding fashion. Colony’s 333 points were 53 more than second-place South.

For Wasilla, Colton Lindquist defeated Soldotna’s Sean Babbitt for the 171-pound title after losing to Babbitt last week at the region tournament.

Lindquist entered the second round tied with Babbitt at 3, but voraciously scored during the final four minutes, winning 8-4 over Babbitt.

The Warriors’ Alex Logsdon took second place at 119 pounds, losing 7-1 to four-time state champion Aedyn Concepcion.

In the small-schools tournament, Houston’s Riesen Seyer took second place at 103 pounds. Redington’s Boston Postishek took second at 130 pounds and Huskies head coach Abe Salmon won Coach of the Year.