Thunder Mountain Middle School grapplers win home meet
- Klas Stolpe
- 13 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Falcons’ Leighton Hall outstanding female wrestler, Andrew Erickson outstanding male
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Thunder Mountain Middle School wrestling team was hospitable, to some extent, to their visitors at the Harben Invitational Middle School Wrestling Tournament on Friday and Saturday in the TMMS gym. But on the mat nothing is given, and the Falcons crowned 11 champions, including Outstanding Female Wrestler award winner Leighton Hall and Outstanding Male Wrestler award winner Andrew Erickson.
“It means girls wrestling has grown a lot since this tournament first started,” Hall said of the number of her peers competing. “It really shows that girls are finding the sport more popular and people are showing how much they support that by allowing girls to wrestle. Sometimes we still wrestle boys, depending on what weight we are going for.”
Hall defeated teammate Janessa Dutton by fall at 0:19 for the 113-pound girls’ title Saturday. She also won Friday’s round robin portion and tied for second with the most pins by a wrestler in the tournament, earning four falls. Blatchley Middle School male Garrett Johnson led with five pins and his teammate Jerick Keith had four.
A mat full of TMMS wrestlers earned three pins through the tournament, including Erickson, who won the boys’ 126-pound title over teammate Jimmy Carson by fall at 2:02 and won Friday’s round robin portion.
“This tournament is really important because we get more matches in before state,” Erickson, an eighth grader, said. “It is good experience. I am working on my leg attacks and my finishes and stuff...It feels good to have some of the younger wrestlers look up to you and to be a leader. It is fun running warmups and stuff.”
TMMS champions from Saturday’s spotlight matches included Hall over Dutton for the girls’ 113-pound title by fall at 0:19; Erickson over Carson for the boys’ 126-pound title by fall at 2:02; Finley Hulson over teammate Sophia Beedle for the girls’ 81-pound title by fall at 1:37; Minali Reid over teammate Margaret Olson for the girls’ 128-pound title by 15-0 technical fall; Ngai Kivalu over Haines Middle School’s Lylah Wray for the girls’ 136-pound title by fall at 4:10; William Lansing over teammate Darion Brown for the boys’ 160-pound title by 11-8 decision; Kolten Krueger over teammate Koji Rank for the boys’ 174-pound title by fall at 2:25; Jeremiah Filipo over teammate Tua Faatoia for the boys’ 210-pound title by fall at 1:33; Wyatt Hickok over teammate Steven Fairchild for the boys’ 140-pound title by fall at 2:49; and Sinira Tomanogi over teammate Haylee Dyer-Ondreka for the girls’ 155-pound title by 11-0 major decision.
The final featuring Tomanogi and Dyer-Ondreka shows the competition and improvement the TMMS and Juneau Youth Wrestling Club wrestlers are experiencing as this duo has battled all season. Dyer-Ondreka had pinned Tomanogi earlier Saturday, her first win over her teammate.
“Competition is always there,” Dyer-Ondreka said. “Just getting on the mat, seeing what I can do, whether I lose or win, no matter who I wrestle I just want to be on the mat doing what I do best…I just like seeing the compassion that everyone has on the mat. Seeing everybody push through thick and thin, seeing the happiness and sadness, there is just a lot going on all the time. And it is special to get to experience that.”
TMMS female wrestlers sometimes have to wrestle against male athletes as wrestling programs across the state have been slowly adding more girls to the rosters.
“I don’t think that matters,” Hall said. “I don’t think so, no. It feels a lot better when we defeat a boy.”
Other teams’ first-place Saturday championships included Blatchley Middle School’s Jerick Keith over Haines Middle School’s Tyson Combes for the boys’ 77-pound title by fall at 2:20; BMS’ Max Foss over TMMS’ Neviah Blanton for the girls’ 89-pound title by fall at 2:42; HMS’ Yarona Jacobson over BMS’ Annie Evans for the girls’ 105.5-pound title by fall at 1:34; HMS’ Asher Jimenez over TMMS’ Gavin Tobacco for the boys’ 118-pound title by 16-0 TF at 2:52; HMS’ Canaan Larson over TMMS’ Cole Savland for the boys’ 132-pound title by fall at 4:13; and BMS’ Garrett Johnson over TMMS’ Matvii Kozodoi for the boys’ 148-pound title by fall at 3:37.
With two top Southeast middle school teams — Ketchikan’s Schoenbar MS and Wrangell’s Stikine MS — not attending, wrestlers had to move among various classes and divisions to fill weights. Those adaptations on the fly are another reason the wrestlers are improving, and can make for thrilling matches.
“He had me down and my arm was stuck so I couldn’t get out,” TMMS’ Aaro Eckerson said of his boys’ 148-pound win over BMS’ Ashton Turner by fall at 3:36. At one point, it appeared Eckerson would be pinned.
“I was out of breath,” he said. “So I stuck with it because I knew if I gave just a little bit more I wouldn’t get pinned and I waited…I tried my hardest and then I got back up and pinned him…I thought I had messed up really bad, but I just didn’t give up. I just kept going and I won.”
Eckerson would place fourth in his division.
“The meet went fine and the kids did great,” TMMS coach Ken Brown said. “Was fun to see them find success. My younger wrestlers really impressed me. Gavin Tobacco and Amelia Ryder impressed me with the growth they have shown. Gavin had a 10-second pin! Amelia is a smart kid. She was doing a good job of working and trying what we do in practice. The wins will start piling up for her if she keeps at it and keeps working. I challenged my older, more veteran kids to try moves they do not normally do. Leighton Hall really is coming along with her shot. Was impressive to see. Coaches Jason Hass and Gary Reid are doing a great job of challenging and preparing the kids.”
TMMS second-place finishers Saturday included girls’ 81-pound Sophia Beedle; girls’ 89-pound Neviah Blanton; girls’ 113-pound Janessa Dutton; boys’ 118-pound Gavin Tobacco; boys’ 126-pound Jimmy Carson; girls’ 128-pound Margaret Olson; boys’ 132-pound Cole Savland; boys’ 148-pound Matvii Kozodoi; girls’ 155-pound Haylee Dyer-Ondreka; boys’ 160-pound Darion Brown; boys’ 174-pound Koji Rank; boys’ 210-pound Tua Faatoia; and boys’ 140-pound Steven Fairchild.
TMMS round robin placings included: 1st place finishers - Logan Sivertsen (Boys 105 pound), Leighton Hall (Girls 113 pound), Hunter Ridle (B114), Andrew Erickson (B126), Minali Reid (G128), Cole Savland (B132), Boe Reigard (B140), Haylee Dyer-Ondreka (G155), Koji Rank (B174) and Jeremiah Filipo (B210); 2nd - Finley Hulson (G81-89), Eli Underwood-Knowles (B105), Janessa Dutton (G113), Woody Collins (B114), Gavin Tobacco (B118), Jimmy Carson (B126), Margaret Olson (G128), Wyatt Hickok (B132), Ngai Kivalu (G136), Matvii Kozodoi (B148), Sinira Tomanogi (G155), Kolten Krueger (B174), and Tua Faatoia (B210); 3rd - Neviah Blanton (G81-89), Cash Miller (B114), Amelia Ryder (G128), Sierra Savage (G136), Steven Fairchild (B140) and Devon Brown (B174); 4th - Casey Blackwell (G113), Momar Diouf (B114), Hinai Kuma (G128), Guy Hunter (B132), Kael Prince (B140), Aaro Eckerson (B148) and William Lansing (B174); 5th - Sophia Beedle (G81-89), Finn Troutman (B105), Harper Durham (G113) and Darion Brown (B174); 6th - Tanner Freebury (B98) and Ben Lansing (B140). Other wrestlers included Olin Haffner (B105) and Tug Hansen.
TMMS had 24 wrestlers and placed first as a team, Haines’ 10 wrestlers placed second, Blatchley’s nine wrestlers placed third, and Skagway Middle School’s six wrestlers placed fourth. Visiting teams’ round robin, first-place finishers included SMS’ Zander Coughran (B98); BMS’ 87-pound boy Jerick Keith (G81-89) and Garrett Johnson (B148); HMS’ Yarona Jacobson (G105.5), Asher Jimenez (B118) and Lylah Wray (G136).
“Haines, Skagway and Sitka have fantastic wrestling programs,” Juneau Youth Wrestling Coach Jason Hass said. “Their respective coaches are doing great things and their dedication to their teams is evident. We are very grateful they braved the gales to make the trip to Juneau and hope they make it home safely.”
What also makes the Harben Invitational such a welcoming and popular athletic challenge is the support local high school wrestlers give back to the program via officiating, coaching, scoring and various other tasks during the tournament.
“To me personally wrestling is a big part of my life,” Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé junior Landon Dunn said. “I try not to make it my whole life, but things like this tournament (are) super important because all these kids are going into it because they need more matches and need more competition to go through. This is just a giant test for everyone going to state and to see where everyone is at, and we get to be a part of that. I try to be a good leader and show what they are supposed to do.”
Among the volunteers were JDHS grapplers Sean Fairchild and Camden Messmer, members of the coaching staffs from the JDHS Crimson Bears and the Juneau Youth Wrestling Club (JYWC), and tournament director Chris Heideman. Heideman has been instrumental in switching the tournament scoring platform from Track Wrestling to USA Bracketing, which is the platform that the Alaska School Activities Association is using.
“The personal highlight for me this weekend was for the families of our wrestlers to get to watch them, in person,” Hass said. “With so few home tournaments, every match the wrestlers have that their families are able to watch is special. Seeing how involved the crowd was this weekend excited our team and reminded ourselves how much fun our sport is. Thanks to all the families and fans that maintained that enthusiasm, cheered for every match and spent their Saturday supporting wrestling.”
The JYWC is hosting its annual Southeast Clash elementary age tournament Saturday at TMMS, and JYWC will take the entire contingent of middle school wrestlers to the 50th annual Tanana Invitational, Feb. 26-28, which is considered the unofficial middle school state tournament.
“This was made possible by a partnership between the Juneau Youth Wrestling Club, the Juneau School District and the Bears & Falcons Wrestling Boosters,” Hass said. “This partnership is a huge step forward and exemplifies our oft-used term ‘wrestling community.’ We are all committed to coming together and providing an amazing opportunity for our young athletes.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
