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Photo by John Wagner

Photo by John Wagner

NORTH POLE — The Colony Knights claimed the first place trophy at the John Tobin Invitational Wrestling Tournament Saturday night at North Pole High School.

The Knights took a commanding victory with 249.5 points, while Lathrop trailed behind with 195 and North Pole came in third with 152. South Anchorage finished with 143, followed by Kodiak with 105, West Valley with 53, Hutchison with 31, Barrow with 22, Noorvik with 16 and Eielson with 13.

The Tobin Invitational was the fourth straight road tournament for Colony. Even with the recent travel and the seven-hour trip from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, head coach Fred McKenney said it didn’t affect the wrestlers.

“With as much as we travel we are used to it by now,” McKenney said.

The Knights were stretched thin this tournament with only 16 wrestlers out of a 113-member team. Colony had wrestlers competing at two other tournaments this weekend — at Soldotna and Skyview — and also had several athletes out with a flu.

Despite their small number. the Knights were prominent throughout the tournament with 14 wrestlers placing and seven reaching the championship finals.

Colony’s first championship victory came in the 140-pound weight class. Jesse McKee, a member of the junior varsity team, stepped up to replace a teammate out with the flu and came away with a commanding 10-4 win over Lathrop’s Tevin Tolver.

McKenney was very pleased with McKee’s performance. “He came up big for us. He did amazing,” McKenney said.

McKee was at a disadvantage of weight going into the match. He usually wrestles at 135, but he moved up a class in order to compete.

The Knights next victory was at 189, where Angelo Bellote narrowly beat Brent Reed of South Anchorage, 7-5.

The Knights managed one more championship victory at 215, with Eric Fan getting a win over Jordan Lewis of Lathrop, 9-3.

The Knights took four second place finishes in Isaac Wilson at 112, Charles Coizman at 119, and Kenny Boykin at 171. Sam Loggins also took second after enduring a long match into triple overtime, finally falling to Luke Shelley of South Anchorage.

Lathrop had four champions in the tournament on its way to second place with one of those going to Jeremy Simmons.

Simmons was voted most outstanding wrestler by the coaches. He was victorious in his match over Wilson of Colony in the 112-pound weight class, pinning Wilson with 37 seconds left in the second round.

Lathrop’s other champions are Dillon Achman at 103, Joe Hughes at 119 and Elliott Clausen at 160.

North Pole also had four champons — Blayne Kiser at 125, Sean Perry at 135, Eric Antesberger at 152 and Clay Tidwell at 275.

Complete tournament results will be published in Monday’s Daily News-Miner.

Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.