A good night for Knights and South’s Aedyn Concepcion at Division I wrestling championships

After finishing second the past two seasons, the Colony Knights returned to the top of the Division I wrestling world Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center.

Led by individual champions Jared Hopkins and Vincent Cramer, the Knights captured their first state title since 2017 and their seventh in school history by pulling away from the defending champion South Wolverines during consolation-round competition.

“It seems like it’s been a long time since we’ve been on top,” said Colony head coach Todd Hopkins. “We got kids wrestling in the freestyle season and Greco season and a couple kids wrestling through the summer. It just validates that hard work pays off for them.”

Though South was denied a second straight team title, the Wolverines went home with a pretty sweet consolation prize – five individual champions, including senior Aedyn Concepcion, who captured his fourth straight individual championship to join an elite group of Alaska wrestlers who have managed a four-peat.

[Bethel’s Hayden Lieb wraps up his historic career with a 4th state title]

The Knights came into the second day of the tournament with a four-point lead over the Wolverines but they dominated the back half of the brackets to clinch the team title before the championship finals even started.

“We had some really, really good rounds this afternoon and morning, (in) the consolation semis we won all but one match, maybe two,” said Hopkins. “It just shows the resilience of the kids to come back after … falling a little bit short and adjusting their goals.”

Just like his team, Jared Hopkins went from two-time runnerup to state champion. One of four Colony wrestlers to advance to the championship finals, he brought home the gold in the 135-pound weight class after finishing second the previous two seasons.

He’s the third of Todd Hopkins’ sons to win a state title.

“It’s pretty special,” the coach said. “One of the biggest reasons that I’m coaching is to spend time with them.”

Levi Hopkins and Caleb Hopkins, who wrestle collegiately at Division I Campbell University, collected individual crowns in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Levi was a two-time finalist and Caleb was a three-time finalist who won his title when Jared was freshman.

“I’ve been wrestling around my brothers for a long time,” Jared said. “They’ve both won a state title so to finally get one and join them is really cool.”

Colony’s 333 points gave the Knights a comfortable margin over South, which placed second with 280. Lathrop claimed third place with 246 points and had two individual champs, 112-pound Roberto Lechuga Porras and 145-pound Kobe Ames.

Seven Wolverines competed for state titles and five came away with first-place medals – Concepcion (119 pounds), Simon Keffalos (125), Theo Cha (140), Brandon DeYarmon (160) and Jackson Moore (285).

“This morning we had some heartbreaking losses and even in the finals we had some heartbreaking losses but finishing with five individual state titles … I’m happy with that,” South coach Randy Hanson said.

Concepcion finished his high school career with two losses in four seasons, and his 7-1 decision over Wasilla’s Alexander Logsdon made him one of 16 Alaskans in history to claim four titles – 14 boys and two girls. He is South’s first four-time state champ.

“It feels amazing to be a part of that group that so few are a part of,” Concepcion said. “I know everybody wanted me to lose, everybody didn’t think I was going to be a four-timer, but I think that performance proved them wrong.”

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East celebrated two champions – 103-pound Benjamin Pope and 130-pound Octavius McCleskey – and Chugiak, Wasilla and West had one champion apiece.

Daniel Niebles of Chugiak completed an undefeated season by winning the 189-pound crown, and Colton Lindquist of Wasilla knocked off top-seeded Sean Babitt of Soldotna to take the 171-pound title.

The night’s most exciting bout came in the 215-pound final, where West’s Kelton Mock rallied from a one-point deficit after almost getting disqualified because of a pair of illegal hold calls.

He took a 7-6 decision victory after scoring a takedown of Colony’s Macarius Floresta in the waning seconds of the third period.

“He’s one of the hardest working kids in our room, he’s a team captain for us, he’s always getting stuff done,” said West head coach Shawn Silverthorn. “… To have a couple things go wrong in that match, to be able to have that mindset, that’s a state-champion mindset. To overcome that adversity, that’s what we try to coach in all of our kids whether they’re a C team kid or a state finalist.”

A year ago Mock was pinned in the 215-pound finals, and he came into his senior season determined to finish on the top of the podium, not a step below.

“I’ve worked for this for six years,” he said. “Wrestling has brought me up from being just a pudgy little nerd kid in seventh grade to a state champ now. Last year I took a really hard loss in the state finals. I was outmatched in my own head and this year I came back with a little something extra. This was my last go around and I really had to pull it together.”

[Led by a 3-time champ, North Pole captures girls team title]

Here’s how the finals unfolded:

103 -- Benjamin Pope of East didn’t let an injury timeout at the onset of his title match prevent him from bringing home the gold with his 7-1 decision over Andre Killian-Dalrymp of Lathrop.

112 -- Roberto Lechuga Porras of Lathrop entered the state tournament as the fifth seed and finished No. 1 after a 13-1 major decision over second-seeded Caleb O’Hara of East.

119 – South’s Aedyn Concepcion earned his fourth straight state title with a dominant 7-1 decision over Alexander Logsdon of Wasilla.

125 -- Simon Keffalos gave South two winners in a row when he pinned Jahrease Mays of Thunder Mountain with nine seconds left in the second period to secure one of five individual titles for the Wolverines.

130 -- Octavius McCleskey of East got the finals started off with a commanding 9-4 decision over Darinn Peterson of North Pole.

135 -- After two years as a runnerup, Jared Hopkins of Colony earned his first career state title with second-period pin of South’s Niko Mayo with 31 second left on the clock. It was a rematch of last year’s 125-pound final, where Mayo beat Hopkins 3-1.

140 -- Not even a shower of boos from Knights fans upset with the officials could rain on Theo Cha’s parade. The South wrestler escaped with a 3-2 decision over Colony’s Aidan Ehmann for his second straight title. Both were state champs last year, with Cha winning at 135 pounds and Ehmann winning at 119.

145 -- Kobe Ames of Lathrop capped his dominant run through the state tournament with a 12-2 major decision over Riley Harris of South. The only points he yielded in the final came on an intentional escape and a stalling call.

152 – Colony’s Vincent Cramer lived up to his No. 1 seeing by putting on a takedown clinic in his 14-5 major decision over Dennis Taylor of Soldotna.

160 -- Brandon DeYarmon of South scored the match’s only takedown and escape and then rode for the entire third period to secure a 3-0 decision over Josiah Opp of Lathrop.

171 -- After a tightly contested first period ended in a 3-3 tie, Colton Lindquist of Wasilla pulled away in the final two periods for an 8-4 decision over Soldotna’s Sean Babitt.

189 -- Daniel Niebles of Chugiak finished his season a perfect 39-0 with a 10-2 major decision over Nick Tipton (Thunder Mountain).

215 -- Kelton Mock of West avoided disqualification and got a takedown in the final seconds of the third period for his 7-6 decision over Macarius Floresta of Colony.

285 -- Both wrestlers had recorded an escape heading into the final period but Jackson Moore of South broke the tie with a takedown in the final two seconds to secure a 3-1 decision over Shaun Conwell of West Valley.

ASAA/First National Bank state wrestling championships

Team scores

Colony 333, South 280, Lathrop 246, Palmer 137, East 133.5, Wasilla 130.5, Thunder Mountain 98, Soldotna 82.5,West Valley 69, West 65, North Pole 52, Ketchikan 46.5, Chugiak 37.5, Eagle River 21, Service 16, Bartlett 8, Dimond 6, Kodiak 6.

3rd-place matches

103 - Evan Holmes (Colony) d. Ashton Volkman (East), 8-5.

112 - Adam Concepcion (South) d. Elijah Larsen (Colony), 8-3.

119 - Jeremy Bockert (Lathrop) m.d. Carter Silva (Colony), 10-1.

125 - Colton Parduhn (Lathrop) d. TJ Clapp (Colony), 7-3.

130 - Garrett Blydenburgh (Palmer) d. Kayden Payne (Colony), 2-0.

135 - Payton Portney (Palmer) p. Rett Gallagher (Colony), 3:34.

140 - William Poland (Lathrop) d. Niles Williams (Wasilla), 6-1.

145 - Streling Uhlenhake (Wasilla) p. Isaac Coon (West Valley), 3:23.

152 - Antonio Woodfork (Palmer) Zac Loutzenhiser (Colony), 8-4.

160 - Jalen Tosten (Colony) p. Tanner Thornhill (Colony), 2:55.

171- Jackson Acree (Palmer) d. Landis Erwin (Colony), 9-5.

189 - Camryn Binning (Colony) sv-1 Ethan Bleakney (Palmer), 6-4.

215- Ikaika Vaivai (East) d. Mason Wurst (South), 6-3.

285 - Jacob Ferster (Thunder Mountain) d. Daniel Van Slyke (Colony), 6-0.

5th-place matches

103 - Jerzy Ritz (Colony) p. Carson Cummins (Thunder Mountain), 2:46.

112 - Dylan Shaw (South) d. Elyle Francisco (East), 1-0.

119 - Isaac Pang (West) p. Dimitri Larson (West), 4:12.

125 - Garrett Bourne (Lathrop) d. Kai Biagi (Ketchikan), 7-4.

130 - Aaron Johnson (Lathrop) d. Chad Hakala (South), 5-4.

135 - Owen Manley (Palmer) m.d. Samuel Logsdon (Wasilla), 12-4.

140 - Zach Burns (Soldotna) d. Hunter Richardson (Soldotna), 6-5.

145 - Deshawn Campbell (Wasilla) d. Jayden Christianson (Palmer), 10-4.

152 - Jedi Patzke (South) p. Kyle Stolz (North Pole), 4:42.

160 - Jesse Schnabel (West Valley) d. James Salter (Eagle River), 2-0.

171 - Sage Martin (Lathrop) p. Joshua Zong (Service), 0:18.

189 - Mark Fisher (North Pole) d. Colton Copelin (West), 4-2.

215 - Camden Erickson (Thunder Mountain) won by forfeit over Sean Michel (Lathrop).

285 - Noah Curtis (Lathrop) p. Tyler Linder (Palmer), 1:52.