The Soldotna wrestling team narrowly missed taking the Northern Lights Conference title from Colony on Saturday in Kodiak.
The Knights defended their conference title with 351.5 points, while Soldotna was second with 351.
Soldotna received individual championships from Ezekiel Miller at 125, Wayne Mellon at 171, Hunter Richardson at 189 and Liam Babitt at 215.
At 125, Miller pinned Matthew Mitchell of Colony for the title. At 171, Mellon defeated Palmer’s Preston Long by 10-2 major decision for the crown. At 189, Richardson pinned Gabriel Beaudoin for the title. At 215, Babitt had a 15-5 major decision over Colony’s Robert Yundt for the crown.
The top five in each weight class earn automatic berths to the Division I state tournament, with additional at-large berths available.
Also earning the automatic berths for Soldotna were Jacob Strausbaugh in third at 103, Ryan Buchanan in fourth at 112, Blaze Michael in fourth at 119, Nicholas Rackley in fifth at 130, Hunter Bras in third at 135, Trevor Michael in second at 135, Saiyan Baker in second at 140, Cassius Miller in fourth at 140, Isaac Chavarria in second at 145, Logan Duyck in third at 145, Scott Michael in second at 152, Edgar Land in third at 152, Collin Peck in fourth at 160, Joe Whittom in fourth at 189 and Kenai Lepule in fourth at 285.
Also in the top six for the Stars were Tustin Keller in sixth at 103, Jaykob Kemp in sixth at 160 and Kevin Steger in sixth at 215.
At the Northern Lights girls tournament in Kodiak, Colony won with 95 points, while Palmer was second with 83 and SoHi was third with 63.
Daisy Hannevold at 135 and Trinity Donovan at 145 earned titles for the Stars. Hannevold pinned Colony’s Sarah Callender in the final, while Donovan pinned Colony’s Kaitlyn Cottrell.
The top two in each weight class earn automatic berths to the girls state tournament, with additional at-large berths available. Jessica Leclair was second at 103 for the Stars, while Angelina Chavarria was third at 112 and Erin Bell was third at 145.
At the Kachemak Conference tournament at Houston, Redington defended its conference crown by getting 193 points, while Houston was second with 160. Kenai Central led the peninsula in third with 129, while Nikiski was fourth at 127.5, Seward was fifth at 89 and Homer was eighth at 62.
Kenai was led by individual championships from Talon Whicker at 125 pounds and Andrew Gaethle at 152 pounds. In the championship match at 125, Whicker pinned Colton Merriner of Grace Christian. At 152, Gaethle pinned Jake Thacker of Anchorage Christian Schools.
The top three in each weight class automatically advance to Division II state, with additional at-large berths available. Earning automatic berths for the Kards were Owen Whicker placing second at 130, Antonio Perez placing third at 135, Elijah Dambacher placing third at 140, Reymond Perez placing third at 145 and Morgan Stark placing third at 189.
Also in the top six for Kenai were Delen Byrd in fourth at 135 and Zoticus Active in fifth at 189.
The Bulldogs received individual championships from Wyatt Maguire at 119 and Simon Grenier at 171. At 119, Maguire notched a technical fall over Hayden Kearney of Redington to win the final. At 171, Grenier pinned Andrew Beveridge of Grace for the title.
Robert Isabel, at 215, and Mayaac Schmit, at 285, also earned state berths for the Bulldogs by placing second.
Also in the top six were Sam Yerkes in fourth at 145, Jackson Wittmer in fifth at 160, Seth Payne in fourth at 160, Truit McCaughey in sixth at 171 and Tim Goodnight in sixth at 189. McCaughey lost three of the matches in the tournament by injury default to finish sixth.
For the Seahawks, Aiden Schilling was second at 103, Hunter Kurtz was second at 112, Porter Rockwell was third at 119 and Jack Gardner was third at 215 to earn state berths.
Also in the top six were Nathan Hankins in fifth at 119, Fayzon Lawrence in fifth at 171, John Vanbuskirk in fourth at 285 and Tyler Lands in sixth at 285.
For Homer, Russell Nyvall won the championship at 145 pounds. Nyvall pinned Josh Paulson of Grace in the final. Also in the top three for the Mariners were Paul Minke in third at 125 and Nestor Kalugin in third at 171. Also in the top six were Alex Van Meter in sixth at 125 and Brayden Woods in sixth at 160.
At the Kachemak girls tournament at Houston, Redington also won with 112 points. Kenai was second with 53, Homer was third with 30, Nikiski was fourth with 21 and Cordova was fifth with 18.
The Kards received a title from Sarai Bravo-Moe at 130 thanks to a pin of Redington’s Joy Walker.
The top two in each weight class get an automatic berth to girls state, with additional at-large berths available. Jalyn Yeoman in second at 135 and Simone Watts in second at 160 also earned automatic bids. Jenna Yeoman was third at 160 for Kenai.
Homer received a first from Mischelle Wells at 235 and a second from Rainey Sundheim at 145.
For Nikiski, Jasmine Durfee was fourth at 160, Madalyn Stichal was fourth at 135 and Shyra Loomis was fifth at 135.
