By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Wrestlers from Mt. Edgecumbe High School peaked at an opportune moment, swept many of the top spots in the boys’ and girls’ competitions and claimed the Regional V championship title over the weekend in Ketchikan.
Both the Braves and Lady Braves won by wide margins, and many will continue their season at the state championship tournament this weekend in Anchorage.
After three years of wrestling for the Lady Braves, junior Tahira Akaran took first place in the 120-pound weight class and earned a spot in the state tournament.
“It feels really nice,” said Akaran, who is from the Yukon Delta village of Kotlik. “I feel like I accomplished a lot of my goals… There were a few moves that I wanted to master and I mastered a few of them, like the gator roll. And also just to qualify for state,” Akaran told the Sentinel at practice Monday.
She’s looking forward to her first trip to state.
“I’m excited to see who I’m competing against, and all the wrestling and mainly just to put out my hard work and just get out there and get it,” she said.
Akaran’s teammate Keisha Askoak, a senior from Newhalen, won second place in the 145-pound bracket, also earning her first ticket to state.
“I’m looking forward to all the matches, because there’s going to be 15 other girls in my bracket,” Askoak said. “I’m nervous about the tough matches that I know I’m going to have to go against. I’m excited, just happy that I am finally able to do this.”
Overall, the Lady Braves overran their competitors at the Southeast region meet, winning the championship with nearly twice the points of the second place team, Wrangell High. Nine schools from across the region sent a girls’ team to the tournament. Sitka High did not field any female wrestlers this season. Ketchikan took third, Hoonah fourth, Metlakatla fifth, Petersburg sixth, Thunder Mountain seventh, Haines eighth and Craig ninth.
In the 100-pound weight class, MEHS’ Sarah Nanouk-Jones took first, while Nevaeh George claimed second at 107 pounds. Halena Slats finished second in the 126-pound weight class. In the 132-pound bracket, McKayla Kazinguk earned first and Sarah Bahnke won second. The Lady Braves continued their winning streak in the 138-pound weight class, with Angela Ayuluk coming in first and Maelyn Westdahl in second. Taylor Bloomstrand took second in the 185-pound weight class
On the boys’ side, Edgecumbe’s team achieved similar results and took first place by a wide margin. Wrangell took second place, Petersburg third, Haines fourth and Sitka fifth out of 11 teams. In sixth was Craig, with Metlakatla in seventh, Yakutat in eighth, Skagway in ninth, Hydaburg in tenth and Hoonah in eleventh.
In the 140-pound bracket, Braves sophomore Lennie Brandell snagged first place.
“It was just my mindset. I go in there and act like it’s a normal match – that’s for every single match… I just wrestle smart, wrestle hard. And keep with the intensity when I’m wrestling. And I don’t get in my head,” Brandell said.
He credited his coaches for much of his performance.
Another Edgecumbe sophomore, RJ Didrickson, earned second place in the 171-pound weight class. This weekend will be his second time at the state tournament. As a freshman, Didrickson took third at the regional meet – not quite good enough to qualify for state – but won an at-large bid that allowed him to travel north. The top two finishers in each regional weight class automatically qualify for the state tournament.
“It was a really good experience. I went against a tough guy, I wrestled hard. I’m happy with the way I performed throughout the tournament. I think I did pretty well,” Didrickson summarized. He is from Hoonah.
After spending much of the season recovering from an injury, he had only two weeks to prepare for the regional meet.
“Going there and being able to take second and mess up a lot of other people’s brackets was a good feeling,” he said.
On their way to the Region V title Mt. Edgecumbe’s large squad performed well in a wide range of weight classes. At 112 pounds, Shiah Rivers took second, while Elden Andrew won at 119 pounds. Evan Andrew took second in that weight class. Elston Dock continued his high-performing streak with a first place win at 125 pounds, while Tyson Olsen took first in the 130-pound bracket. Oscar Mangrobang earned second at 135 pounds and Connor Journey earned second at 215 pounds.
Coach Aaron Routon is proud of the way his boys and girls teams performed.
“Our kids really rose to the occasion,” he said. “I think in most every instance, our kids wrestled better than they were seeded. Everybody tries to peak at regions and state. I feel like our kids were prepared. I felt like they were ready. And they did well.”
He gave credit to assistant coaches Courtney Howard and Deedee Creed.
The smaller Sitka Wolves team took fifth place in the tournament. Two of Sitka’s wrestlers qualified for state outright, and three more won an at-large bid for their overall third place ranking in Region V. An at-large, or wild card, bid is awarded based on a wrestler’s performance throughout the season.
Sitka’s wrestlers also earned the Good Sportsmanship accolade in Ketchikan.
Sitka junior Evander Elixman defeated all opposition and won first place in the 135-pound weight class. In his final match, he won against Edgecumbe’s Oscar Mangrobang.
“Everything went my way, every situation I came into,” Elixman remembered. “I just felt smooth, felt stronger, faster than everybody. I had a good mindset going into all my matches, which is, to me, the most important thing – having a good mindset.”
In the 189-pound weight class, Aiden Ojala took second place, earning a spot in the state tournament.
Sitka’s Jason Young, wrestling at 160 pounds, took third place, but will travel with the team to Anchorage this week after winning his at-large bid.
He thinks he could have done better at the Ketchikan regionals.
“I’ve improved in almost all the areas that I wanted to this year. I just tried to get fancy (at regions), forgot that I’m a businessman out there. Got to make some business happen,” Young said.
This weekend will be his third time wrestling at the state level, and he hopes to secure a championship title.
Sophomore Silas Ferguson took third in his weight class, but on the strength of his record for the whole season, won an at-large bid to state.
He’s looking forward to rematch bouts against two of his Southeast Alaskan opponents in the 171-pound weight class.
“There’s just two guys that I have trouble with, (Wrangell’s Ethan) Blatchley and RJ (Didrickson), from Edgecumbe. Those two are my big competition. Other than that, I’m surprised and really happy with how I did,” Ferguson said. At Region V, he took third place behind Blatchley and Didrickson.
Up north, the sophomore said, he’s “not planning anything huge, but it’s still a possibility.”
This weekend will be his first time wrestling at the state level.
“It’s exciting, but you’ve just got to treat it like another big, huge tournament,” he said.
Kai Davis will also be going to state with his at-large posting and third place in his 130-pound bracket at regions.
The Wolves worked hard in Ketchikan, coach Mike Callahan said, though not every match swung in Sitka’s favor.
“The kids went out and wrestled hard and proved themselves,” Callahan said. “We had Evander taking first... Aiden fought himself back for a true second. And then we had Jason, Silas and Kai in third, And so with that, we had to put an at-large bid in... They were accepted, our Uno cards, our wild cards,” Callahan said.
He praised the Ketchikan High staff for their work hosting the Region V tournament.
The top wrestlers from across the state will converge on Anchorage for the two-day state tournament, which starts Friday.
