POWERS COLLIDE

WASILLA — Tyler Adams is a defending state champion. But the Wasilla senior has bumped up a few weight classes since winning it all at 130 pounds last season.

Adams has a new home at 145 pounds. But it’s also a place Soldotna senior Auston Tennis. who won a title in that class last year, has owned.

Saturday the new rivals met for the first time and Adams made his pitch to take over the class.

Adams scored an 11-2 major decision over Tennis to win the 145-pound class at the North-South Invitational at Wasilla High.

“It’s been an expected match for a long time this year,” Adams said. “I’ve been really looking forward to it.”

Adams used an early takedown and near fall points to take a 4-0 lead into the second period. He padded that lead with an early reversal in the second and led 8-0 midway through the second frame. Throughout the first two periods, Adams was aggressive, consistently going at the strong Soldotna senior.

“You got to wrestle to win, you can’t wrestle to lose,” Adams said. “There’s a difference.”

Adams was also fueled by the thought of a loss he suffered only two weeks ago during the finals of the Lancer Smith Memorial at Palmer High. Bethel’s Marko Kujo used late near fall points in the third period to upset Adams.

“I don’t like losing. I don’t think anyone likes losing,” Adams said. “But it pushed me.”

Adams was one of a half-dozen Wasilla grapplers to win their weight classes and lead the defending state champions to a lopsided victory in the team standings. Wasilla scored 240 points, more than 50 points ahead of second-place Kodiak.

Bryce Serna, Caleb Pempek, Austin Gonzalez, Adam Akelkok and Ryan Pomrenke also won their weight classes for Wasilla.

While Adams was wrestling his finals opponent for the first time, Serna was very familiar with his.

The Wasilla junior faced teammate Nate McKimson in the 138-pound final. McKimson came into the tournament undefeated and the top-ranked wrestler in the state in his class, but Serna used a takedown in the final seconds to beat his teammate.

“It’s hard because both of us know exactly what each other does,” Serna said of wrestling a teammate in a tournament.

McKimson used an escape with 43 seconds left in the third to take a 4-3 lead. That score stayed the same until the final seconds when Serna was able to throw McKimson to the mat and take the match with the 5-4 victory.

Serna said he could have attacked the legs, but knew McKimson was hard to take down that way. He said he thought the upper body was his best way to win.

West Valley’s Daide Agnew used a late takedown of his own to upset another top-ranked Wasilla wrestler, Abe Fox. Agnew edged Fox 4-3 at 126.

Gonzalez edged Palmer’s Ben Button, the lone representative for the Moose in the finals, 8-5 to win at 195 pounds. Pempek needed only 42 seconds to pin Jackson Pavitt of Thunder Mountain in the 160-pound final.

Akelkok (220) and Pomrenke (285) both scored pins during the final two matches of the night.

Colony also had a strong showing with five wrestlers in the finals and three individual champions.

Wade Booth scored an impressive 13-6 win over Kodiak’s Levi Fried in the 113-pound final. Fried took a 2-0 lead into the second period, but Booth was awarded near fall points twice during the second to take a 7-2 lead.

Booth threw Fried early in the third to stretch his advantage to 9-2, and scored a pair of late reversals to earn the major decision.

Sawyer Root beat Kodiak’s Kevin Lopola 11-8 to win at 152. Simon Root got the title at 170.

Daniel Burton (170) and Ty Farber (285) both finished second.

Colony was third in the team standings with 137 points.

Palmer finished fourth overall with 129 points in the standings. Button was the lone Moose wrestler in the final round, but Aaron Molesky (120), Luke Heun (145), Cole Frohling (220) and Brian Thompson (285) all finished third for PHS.

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

North/South Invitational

Saturday, Wasilla

Team scores:

1. Wasilla 240; 2. Kodiak 186; 3. Colony 137; 4. Palmer 129; 5. Soldotna 94; 6. Wasilla JV 86; 7. Kenai 64; 8. West Valley 54; 9. Palmer JV 44.5; 10. Colony JV 42; 11. Thunder Mountain 34; 12. Kodiak JV 34.

Championship finals:

106 pounds — A. Caballa, Kod d. H. Steffensen, Ken 8-4; 113 — W. Booth, Col m.d. L. Fried, Kod 13-6; 120 — F. Llorente, Kod d. S. Carpenter, Was 10-7; 126 — D. Agnew, Was d. A. Fox, Was 4-3; 132 — E. Steffensen, Ken p. C. White, Kod 1:11; 138 — B. Serna, Was d. N. McKimson, Was 5-4; 145 — T. Adams, Was m.d. A. Tennis, Sol 11-2; 152 — S. Root, Col d. K. Lepola, Kod 11-8; 160 — C. Pempek, Was p. J. Pavitt, TM 0:42; 170 — S. Root, Col won by injury def., D. Burton, Col; 182 — T. Strief, Sol p. C. Johnson, Kod 2:46; 195 — A. Gonzalez, Was d. B. Button, Pal 8-5; 220 — A. Akelkok, Was p. T. Bigley, Kod 4:23; 285 — R. Pomrenke, Was p. T. Farber, Col 5:33.

Third-place matches:

106 — M. Vandermartin, Col p. F. Warner, Was 0:36; 113 — A. Shannon, Was d. D. Ellibee, Col 7-3; 120 — A. Molesky, Pal p. H. Bourggois, Sol 3:22; 126 — E. Burris, Kod d. N. Pempek, Pal 5-4; 132 — C. Minnick, Was d. E. Fouch, Pal 1-0; 138 — D. Carter, Ken m.d. D. Medina, Pal 11-1; 145 — L. Heun, Pal m.d. B. Beltran, Kod 12-4; 152 — V. Fricilone, WV T. Olson, Was 2:22; 160 — Z. Rockstand, Was p. D. Wibbe, Kod 3:59; 170 — K. Powers, Kod d. K. Foust, Sol 5-2; 182 — A. Fuller, Was d. C. Nielson, Pal 2-1; 195 — I. MacKenzie, Col d. J. Ryno, Pal 6-2; 220 — C. Frohling, Pal p. S. Imof, Was 0:46; 285 — B. Thompson, Pal p. S. Maranville, Pal 0:45.