Knights win North/South team title

WASILLA — Powered by five individual champions, the Colony Knights scored the team title of the North/South Invitational Saturday at Wasilla High School.

Colony’s three defending state champions — Levi Hopkins, Dawson Nash and Robert Haan — were among the five Knights to win their weight class, and helped the Knights finish with a tournament-best 209.5 total points in the team standings.

In the match of the day, the 138-pound final, Hopkins edged Wasilla’s Berit Sturgeon 7-6 in the ultimate tiebreaker. Nash (182 pounds) and Haan (195) each needed less than 35 seconds in the final round to pin their opponent.

Austin Edwards (98) and Vincent Cramer (106) also finished first for the Knights.

Led by the four individual champs, host Wasilla finished second in the team standings with 177 points.

Defending state champions Micah Mathis and Sam Wolff were among the four Warriors to finish first in their respective weight class. Mathis captured the title at 120, while Wolff was first at 145. Isaiah Elvsaas (126) and Dillon Simpson (132) also finished first for Wasilla.

Palmer also crowned a pair of champions. Jeff Glynn was first at 160 and Austin Farris finished first at 220.

All five teams in the field are part of the Northern Lights Conference. The only NLC team not to compete at North/South was Kodiak. The NLC Championships start Friday in Kenai.

*** Editor’s Note: A version of this story originally ran in the Sunday edition of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. The tournament team scores available at that time were incorrect, but were corrected after publication. This version includes the correct team scores.

North/South Invitational

Saturday, Wasilla High School

Team scores:

1. Colony 209.5, 2. Wasilla 177; 3. Palmer 118.5 4. Soldotna 75; 5. Kenai 47.5.

First-place matches:

98 pounds — A. Edwards, Col p. L. Craig, Sol 1:38; 106 — V. Cramer, Col d. A. Logsdon, Was 7-1; 113 — G. Hutchison, Sol d. R. Fannon, Col 9-7 SV: 120 — M. Mathis, Was d. T. Severson, Col 7-3; 126 — I. Elvsaas, Was m.d. I. Rodman, Was 8-0; 132 — D. Simpson, Was d. C. Alexander, Was 11-5; 138 — L. Hopkins, Col d. B. Sturgeon, Was 7-6 UTB; 145 — S. Wolff, Was d. E. Christy, Col 8-5; 152 — K. McEnerney, Ken d. A. Shepersky, Was 9-3; 160 — J. Glynn, Pal d. C. George, Was 7-2; 170 — A. Schrader, Sol d. Z. Rogers, Pal 8-5; 182 — D. Nash, Col p. B. Dunham, Ken 0:34; 195 — R. Haan, Col p. T. Riopelle, Col 0:21; 220 — A. Farris, Pal p. I. Christy, Col 3:25; 285 — A. Reeves, Sol d. S. Vandermartin, Was 5-2.