Valley grapplers in hunt for titles

WASILLA — When wrestlers hit the mats at Kodiak High School for the Northern Lights Conference Championships today, the tourney will have a different look.

With the departure of Skyview and Homer, there are only six teams left in the NLC — Colony, Palmer, Wasilla, Kenai, Soldotna and Kodiak. Defending NLC and state champion Wasilla will bring a full lineup of 28 wrestlers, a maximum of two athletes for each of the 14 weight classes, but other teams in the conference will sport a roster nowhere close to 28. That means some brackets in the six-team conference championships may only have about a dozen kids. Other brackets may be lucky to have 10.

But with all of that said, folks around the conference still feel the NLC boasts the most competitive region tourney in the state.

“This is the toughest region tournament in the state,” Colony head coach Dave Booth said.

Booth used his own tournament, the Colony Invitational, to prove his point.

“When we had our large tournament four of the top 6 teams were Wasilla, Kodiak, us and Palmer,” Booth said.

The Colony Invite was one of the regular season tournaments seen potentially as a state tournament preview. Only two 4A schools failed to make the Colony Invite.

The top 6 wrestlers in each of the 14 NLC brackets will advance to next week’s state tournament, which starts Feb. 3 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage. The right for a state title has long been seen as a numbers game — the more state qualifiers, the best chance to score a top spot — and Booth believes the Valley should produce plenty of state qualifiers.

“All of us in the Valley are going to qualify a lot of kids,” Booth said.

Colony will open NLC tourney action this morning with 27 wrestlers, boasting a pair of wrestlers at every weight class but 220.

Colony’s lone wrestler at 220, Ty Farber, is expected to contend for a conference title. Sawyer Root (152), Simon Root (160), Ian MacKenzie (195) and Farber are the top-ranked wrestlers in the NLC, according to the latest poll released by the Alaska wrestling website, akmat.org.

Wasilla, which has combined with Colony to win the last nine state tournament team titles, has a full roster of 28.

Wasilla head coach Shawn Hayes said he’s not sure if the Warriors can place all 28 grapplers in the top 6 of their respective classes, but Wasilla would love to hit the 20 mark.

The Warriors have struggled with health during the second half of the season and will have to wrestle without key athletes such as Caleb Pempek, Ryker Steiner, Chance Boatman and Quace Wright. But defending state champions Abe Fox and Tyler Adams have both returned from injury.

Fox, Adams and Nate McKimson (138) are ranked first in the NLC, according to akmat.org.

Palmer has 22 wrestlers in the state tournament, and Palmer head coach Dale Ewart said the Moose have the potential to send the largest number of wrestlers to the state tournament since he has been with the program.

“We should have a good number,” Ewart said.

Ewart said 15 would be a good number of qualifiers for the Moose.

Wasilla, Colony and Palmer are expected to battle host Kodiak for the top spots in the team standings.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

Ranked Northern Lights Conference wrestlers

(Currently ranked in the top 6 in the state according to akmat.org)

106 pounds — 4. Andrew Caballa, Kodiak; 5. Hope Steffensen, Kenai; 6. Mason Cochran.

113 — 4. Levi Fried, Kodiak; 5. Andrew Shannon, Wasilla; 6. Wade Booth, Colony.

120 — 1. Abe Fox, Wasilla; 2. Francis Llorente, Kodiak; 4. Eddie Burris, Kodiak; 5. Shannon Carpenter, Wasilla.

126 — 4. Nathan Pempek, Palmer; 5. Jared Chavez, Soldotna; 6. Spencer Adams, Colony.

132 — 2. Ellery Steffensen, Kenai; 3. Cameron White, Kodiak.

138 — 3. Nate McKimson, Wasilla; 4. Bryce Serna, Wasilla; 6. Collin Bendixen, Palmer.

145 — 1. Tyler Adams, Wasilla; 2. Auston Tennis, Soldotna; 5. Luke Heun, Palmer.

152 — 4. Sawyer Root, Colony.

160 — 2. Simon Root, Colony; 5. Josh Yavorski, Kodiak; 6. Kade Foust, Soldotna.

170 — 3. Kerry Powers, Kodiak; 6. Porter Martin, Colony.

182 — 2. Charlie Johnson, Kodiak; 3. Troy Streiff, Soldotna; 4. Alex Fuller, Wasilla; 5. Caleb Neilsen, Palmer.

195 — 3. Ian MacKenzie, Colony; 6. Ben Button, Palmer.

220 — 2. Ty Farber, Colony; 3. Adam Akelkok, Wasilla; 5. Cole Frohling, Palmer.

285 — 3. Ryan Pomrenke, Wasilla; 5. Mua Sega, Kodiak; 6. Justin Booth, Colony.