Unusual suspects claim first-ever boys team titles and Soldotna girls repeat at 2024 state wrestling championships

The 2024 high school state wrestling season officially came to a close on Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center with the ASAA state championship tournament and thanks to tremendous depth in the consolation rounds earlier in the day, all three team titles were already in the bag before the finals even got underway.

While the Soldotna girls were able to successfully repeat as champions, the Student Wrestling Development Program and Mt. Edgecumbe boys team won the first-ever boys team championships for their respective programs in landslide fashion.

Four years ago, SWDP head coach Westley Bockert only had four wrestlers qualify for the state tournament and none of them even placed while the team finished next to last in team scoring at 17th place with just nine points.

“Now they’re all seniors,” Bockert said. “The team has grown and the seniors have taken that team to a title and it makes everything that we worked on and worked for and all the summers we sacrificed mean a lot.”

That freshman class who are now seniors flipped the script and racked up 357.5 points to keep powerhouse South Anchorage from pulling off a three-peat, winning by more than 80 points over the runner-up Wolverines (274).

“The depth is the reason why we’re here,” Bockert said. “Those back-half guys getting the pins and points they need is what the team needed the most.”

SWDP is based in Fairbanks and even though they convene for practice, their team consists of homeschooled student-athletes. The team is aligned with a small private school in Fairbanks called Interior Grappling Academy that is primarily a wrestling academy for all ages and all styles according to the school website.

While depth and consolation round performances were key to their overwhelming team victory, they were well represented in finals with six wrestlers. The only individual champion of the bunch was junior Chandler St. George who defeated his teammate, Damien Fiame, with a first-period pin.

“I definitely wouldn’t be where I’m at right now without him,” he said of facing his friend and practice partner. “We got there together, not just on the mat but as better (people) in general.”

St. George was happy to share the podium with his teammates and even more elated that his entire team gets to take home a trophy.

“Even though we’re all not first-placers, I feel like we all won,” he said.

Three years ago, the Mt. Edgecumbe boys team came in 16th at state, eighth in 2022 and fourth last year. The Braves came in first this time around with 212 points, which was more than 60 points better than the second-place team, Homer at 148.5.

“We brought 14 kids and nine of them placed,” head coach Courtney Howard said. “This is a special group of kids. ... It means a lot for our program and community. We’ve got alumni from all over the state. We’re unique in that sense because we have kids from all kinds of different communities.”

The Braves sent five wrestlers to the finals and had three individual champions crowned with the most exciting match coming from Elden Andrew who edged out Cache Henning of Unalaska in a 7-6 decision victory.

After a scoreless first period, Andrew scored the first points of the match with a reversal after starting the second in bottom position and got four near-fall points after nearly securing a victory via pin but Henning was given new life via blood-time due to a nosebleed. Henning scored a match-tying takedown in the final 30 seconds to knot it 6-6 but Andrew scored an uncontested point on a free escape in the final seconds of the third period.

“Henning was doing what he had to do,” Howard said. “He needed to do something to win that match at the end and he tried but Elden gutted it out.”

What made Andrew’s path to the finals especially compelling was the fact that he came into the state tournament unseeded and took down the fourth, first seed and second seeds on his way to glory.

The Soldotna girls won comfortably with 169.5, more than 33 points from the second place team. The Stars had four girls make it to the finals but the only one to finish on the top of her respective podium was sophomore Mia Hannevold at 114 pounds. She was very excited and overwhelmed after her match because of everything she had to overcome to get to that point including breaking the same arm as an eighth grader and again as a freshman last year which required surgery.

“Last year I was going to wrestle but three days into practice, I broke my arm,” she said. “It was pretty devastating but it was personal this year for me to come back and win because I’ve been working for it.”

Her two main goals this season were to not get pinned and win state but when she briefly got put on her back at one point in her finals match, both were in jeopardy of not coming to fruition. Not only did she recover but surprised herself by ultimately prevailing tech-fall 17-2.

“I didn’t expect to tech her,” Hannevold said. “For us to (win state) again, it’s just very special and shows how much we’ve been working.”

Other top highlights

Even though their respective teams didn’t win championships as a whole, there were 11 wrestlers between the three divisions who capped off undefeated seasons with individual titles.

Half of the wrestlers who claimed titles in the girls division finished the season without a single loss including a pair from rival schools in the Cook Inlet Conference. South’s Jessailah Thammavongsa fought through her second right shoulder dislocation of the tournament to successfully defend her state title at 165 pounds and finish her high school career with a second straight undefeated season at 32-0.

“It popped again and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, that hurt’ but I pushed through and I remember my sophomore year when I lost in my finals match,” she said. “That popped in my head and I did not want to lose again so I pushed through. It’s a good way to end my high school career.”

In the next match of the girls division, Service senior Keasiya Luedde became just the second-ever female Cougar to win a title with her third-period pin at the 185-pounds weight class.

After a hyper-focused mindset cost her chance at her first title in the semifinals as a junior last year, she was determined to not only win it all but have fun while doing so in her last go-round.

“Junior year it was ‘I have to win, I have to win’ and that was my downfall,” Luedde said. “This year, my final year, I just wanted to have fun genuinely. Yes, winning was in the back of my mind at every tournament. I wanted to be the one that gets their hand raised in the end but I still wanted to have fun.”

While there were no undisputed seasons in boys Division II, there were six in Division I including South sophomore Zane Gerlach and his teammate Jacob Morris who were one of five Wolverines that were runner-ups last year but got the job done this time around. He was leading 10-1 when he secured the first career title with a second-period pin to finish 44-0.

“I just tell myself it’s just another match to get better and practice,” Gerlach said. “I worked pretty hard in the spring time and in the fall and it was just one more opportunity to wrestle.”

Morris also finished 44-0 and came in first at 145 pounds with a 24-8 tech-fall victory. His South teammate, Hayden Martin, came in fourth at 215 pounds last year and finished atop the podium with a 41-0 record this time around.

Often times when a pair of teammates make it to the finals at state, there’s an obvious talent gap but that was not the case in the boys 160-pound championship bout between Soldotna’s Hunter Bras and Trevor Michael. After being awarded a match-tying stalling point, Michael allowed Bras to escape in the final nine seconds of the third period as his fellow Star prevailed 6-5 in a decision victory in one of the first three matches of the final round.

2024 ASAA State Championship

Saturday at Alaska Airlines Center

Finals

100G

Finals

100G

1. Grace Loutzenhiser, Colony High School; 2. Hayden Kumfer, Student Wrestling Development Program; 3. Claire Dyment, Bethel High School; 4. Jessica LeClair, Soldotna; 5. Naomi Keller, Soldotna; 6. Renee Brown, Nome High School

107G

1. Jade Sherry, Student Wrestling Development Program; 2. Valarie McAnelly, Soldotna; 3. Nixie Schooler, Juneau-Douglas HS; 4. Megan Cornett, Student Wrestling Development Program; 5. Brooklyn Duelfer South; 6. Talia Jenkins, Chugiak High School

114G

1. Mia Hannevold, Soldotna; 2. Nevaeh George Mt. Edgecumbe; 3. Jaelynn Colby, North Pole Patriots; 4. Hayden Vanderpool, Colony High School; 5. Christabelle Minke, Homer High School Mariners; 6. Kaylani Vreeland, Dimond

120G

1. Lillie Vansiegman, Palmer High School; 2. Pagan Lester, Newhalen; 3. Braelyn Troxell, Colony High School; 4. Della Churchill, Wrangell Wolves; 5. Nyah O`Neil, Dimond; 6. Solveig Finstad, Lathrop Wrestling

126G

1. Krista Howland, Hoonah City Schools; 2. Rowan Peck, Soldotna; 3. Sarah Callender, Palmer High School; 4. Alora Wassily, Dillingham High School; 5. Jane Douglas, Delta; 6. Ida Lester, Newhalen

132G

1. Saoirse Cook, Homer High School Mariners; 2. Summer Boling, Ketchikan High School; 3. Olivia Probasco, Wasilla High School; 4. Braylynn Young, Nikiski High School; 5. Taryn Wright, Wasilla High School; 6. Eliza Anders, West Valley

138G

1. Brynlee Lutz, Wasilla High School; 2. Desiree Moore, North Pole Patriots; 3. Annika Johnson, Chugiak High School; 4. Adalyn Samuelson, Napaskiak; 5. Lexi Cook, Metlakatla High School; 6. Heaven Copeland, East Anchorage High School

145G

1. Amelia Fawcett, Colony High School; 2. Saige Morris South; 3. Daisy Hannevold, Soldotna; 4. Lacey Sherman, Nome High School; 5. Kirstyn Passin, Valdez High School; 6. Rylie Boyscout, Chugiak High School

152G

1. Kiann Williams, Student Wrestling Development Program; 2. Savannah Stout, South; 3. Hilary Larson, Napaskiak; 4. Bella Byrd, Soldotna; 5. Kaari Storrs, Eagle River High School; 6. Alice Balash, Lathrop Wrestling

165G

1. Jessailah Thammavongsa, South; 2. Infinity-Ann Asiata-Higa, Soldotna; 3. Alexia Zacharof Mt. Edgecumbe; 4. McKinley Hafen, Wasilla High School; 5. Jenna Yoeman, Kenai Central High School; 6. Megan Connelley, Lathrop Wrestling

185G

1. Keasiya Luedde, Service High School; 2. Maya Curp, South; 3. Ayana Hamilton, East Anchorage High School; 4. Thalia Martinez, Lathrop Wrestling; 5. Nikayla Miller, Redington Sr. Jr/Sr High School; 6. Milla Harris, North Pole Patriots

235G

1. Noelle Buck, Colony; 2. Honey Rexford, Student Wrestling Development Program; 3. Allison Coffey,, South, 4. Kimberly Tischner, Houston; 5. Ari O`Domin, Bristol Bay; 6. Sophie Didrickson, Mt. Edgecumbe

Division I Boys

Finals

103

1. Tanner Rhoton, Lathrop Wrestling; 2. Sam Henry, Soldotna; 3. Canyon May, West Valley; 4. Peter May, South Anchorage High School; 5. Brigg Pettijohn, Wasilla High School; 6. Maxton Glover, Ketchikan High School

112

1. Hayden May, West Valley; 2. Jacob Duquette, Lathrop Wrestling; 3. Dylan Frawner, South Anchorage High School; 4. Vash Bundy, Eagle River High School; 5. Gabriel Crockett, Colony High School; 6. Joshua Beedle, Juneau-Douglas HS

119

1. Max Francisco, East Anchorage High School; 2. Lincoln Werner, Student Wrestling Development Program; 3. Ryan Buchanan, Soldotna; 4. Camden Messmer, Juneau-Douglas HS; 5. Wyatt Wilson, Palmer High School; 6. Jaden Yeager, Soldotna

125

1. Titan Linne, Ketchikan High School; 2. Titus Watts, Soldotna; 3. Quenten Halverson, Student Wrestling Development Program; 4. Kaden Costigan, South Anchorage High School; 5. Louie Flint, Eagle River High School; 6. Jake Olson, Colony High School

130

1. Achilles Alexander, Wasilla High School; 2. Jett Connolly, Student Wrestling Development Program; 3. Frank Rodriguez, Student Wrestling Development Program; 4. Liam Rogers, Eagle River High School; 5. Benson Mishler, South Anchorage High School; 6. Carson Cobb, Soldotna

135

1. Jacob Strausbaugh, Soldotna; 2. Brian Grabner, Student Wrestling Development Program; 3. Michael Roschi, Eagle River High School; 4. Kendall Wyble, Student Wrestling Development Program; 5. Gabriel Reuter, Student Wrestling Development Program; 6. Benjamin Dunlap, South Anchorage High School

140

1. Thailyn Reynolds, Wasilla High School; 2. Levi Shivers, South Anchorage High School; 3. Gage Massin, Ketchikan High School; 4. Owen Peterson, Student Wrestling Development Program; 5. Emmanuel Valadez, South Anchorage High School; 6. Cayson Mastberg, Palmer High School

145

1. Jacob Morris, South Anchorage High School; 2. Kaden Bush, North Pole Patriots; 3. Laramie Gibson, Colony High School; 4. Wesley Niegel, Student Wrestling Development Program; 5. Asher Bernick, Student Wrestling Development Program; 6. Corbin Lutz, Wasilla High School

152

1. Michael Dickinson, Soldotna; 2. Tristen Mayer, Colony High School; 3. Braidin Martin, Student Wrestling Development Program; 4. Hayden Reuter, Student Wrestling Development Program; 5. Justus Darbonne, Juneau-Douglas HS; 6. Ryatt Weed, Soldotna

160

1. Hunter Bras, Soldotna; 2. Trevor Michael, Soldotna; 3. Kodi Hollis, Student Wrestling Development Program; 4. Clayton McGuire, South Anchorage High School; 5. Cannon Clifford, Chugiak High School; 6. Nolan Wald, Lathrop Wrestling

171

1. Zane Gerlach, South Anchorage High School; 2. Simon Connolly, North Pole Patriots; 3. Luke Roderick, Colony High School; 4. Emiliano King, Colony High School; 5. Bryson Diola, Eagle River High School; 6. Max Moat, Wasilla High School

189

1. Kaelan Vesel, Palmer High School; 2. Titus Penwell, West Valley; 3. Jimmy Runnels, Student Wrestling Development Program; 4. Allen Hensen, South Anchorage High School; 5. Rodney McNeel, Soldotna; 6. Alberto Colon, East Anchorage High School

215

1. Hayden Martin, South Anchorage High School; 2. Gage Runnels, Student Wrestling Development Program; 3. Paul Thompson, Ketchikan High School; 4. Sithri Fainuulelei, Bartlett High; 5. Josiah James, Dimond; 6. Braden Ott, Eagle River High School

285

1. Chandler St George, Student Wrestling Development Program; 2. Damien Fiame, Student Wrestling Development Program; 3. Kamryn Woodfork, Wasilla High School; 4. Konan Wood, Lathrop Wrestling; 5. James Lackey, Wasilla High School; 6. Rueger Mothershead, Palmer High School

Division II Boys

Finals

103

1. Tommy Jarnig, Seward High School; 2. Cole Iverson, Bethel High School; 3. August Reigh, Dillingham High School; 4. Aidan Crow, Bethel High School; 5. Trent Dundas, Cordova; 6. Vincent Gust, New Stuyahok

112

1. Paxton Lawhorne, Delta; 2. Bryson Andrew, New Stuyahok; 3. Mitchell Sizemore, Redington Sr. Jr/Sr High School; 4. Leo Bukala, Redington Sr. Jr/Sr High School; 5. Luca Fitzpatrick, Homer High School Mariners; 6. Laiton Pingayak, Chevak

119

1. Ridge Conant, Seward High School; 2. Evan Andrew, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 3. Gusty Tunguing IV, Koliganek School; 4. Brenden Moncibaiz, Skagway High School; 5. Christian Chandler, Scammon Bay High School; 6. Alvino Vasquez, Bethel High School

125

1. Hayden Jimenez, Haines High School; 2. Dylan McCambly, Dillingham High School; 3. Brandon Ayapan, Bethel High School; 4. Hunter Gumlickpuk, New Stuyahok; 5. Emery Kirchner, Seward High School; 6. Gunnar Davis, Cordova

130

1. Elden Andrew, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 2. Cache Henning, Unalaska; 3. Kaden Vanbuskirk, Valdez High School; 4. Eli Banks, Houston; 5. Tristan Tilden, Dillingham High School; 6. Sheldon Smith, Bethel High School

135

1. Hunter Forshee-Kurtz, Seward High School; 2. Jaxson Young, Nikiski High School; 3. Logan Beck, Valdez High School; 4. Eben Caulkins, Redington Sr. Jr/Sr High School; 5. Lanakila Greene, Dillingham High School; 6. Killan Hammock, Sitka High School

140

1. Jackson Carney, Wrangell Wolves; 2. Jake Stockhausen, Glennallen High School; 3. Gunnar Stanley, Kenai Central High School; 4. Blake Bailey, Cordova; 5. Wyatt Munster, Dillingham High School; 6. Ben Milton, Nome High School

145

1. Paul Minke, Homer High School Mariners; 2. Justus Grimes, Homer High School Mariners; 3. Conner Cook, Kenai Central High School; 4. Jackson Iverson, Bethel High School; 5. Anthony Smith, Seward High School; 6. Colton Combs, Haines High School

152

1. Daniel Steffensen, Kenai Central High School; 2. Landyn Woods, Homer High School Mariners; 3. Jacob Wassily-Merlino, Dillingham High School; 4. Torian Dull, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 5. Micah Ivanoff, Unalakleet Schools; 6. Everett Meissner, Wrangell Wolves

160

1. Brayden Woods, Homer High School Mariners; 2. Dalen Beck, Valdez High School; 3. Carson Crotts, Grace Christian School; 4. Keagan Stanley, Kenai Central High School; 5. Thomas Swalling, Redington Sr. Jr/Sr High School; 6. Jorge Sandoval, Mt. Edgecumbe High School

171

1. Dalton Henry, Haines High School; 2. Graelin Chaney, Dillingham High School;3. Romen Weber, Valdez High School; 4. Samson Smith, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 5. William Douglas, Delta; 6. Kaden Duke, Petersburg

189

1. Wyatt Ahmasuk, Nome High School; 2. Kaden Herrmann, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 3. Carlos Sandoval, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 4. Warren Blood, Valdez High School; 5. Aj Tudela, Valdez High School; 6. Isaiah Mann, Homer High School Mariners

215

1. Richard Didrickson, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 2. James Stickler, Haines High School; 3. Rex Wittmer, Nikiski High School; 4. Cody Barnes, Wrangell Wolves; 5. Sioeli Tuifua, Barrow High School; 6. Landon Burke, Bethel High School

285

1. Donovan Standifer, Mt. Edgecumbe High School; 2. Norman Lilomaiava, Barrow High School; 3. Angus Olsen, Petersburg; 4. Dylan Petersen, Sitka High School; 5. Lochlyn Roney, Kenai Central High School; 6. Shea Yatchmeneff, Homer High School Mariners