The regular season for large school wrestling concludes for the SoHi and KCHS wrestling programs with a head-to-head dual match on Thursday, January 22 at Kenai Central High School. Varsity wrestling scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.
Soldotna High will host the Northern Lights Conference wrestling championships at the Soldotna Prep School on Friday and Saturday, January 30 & 31. The Northern Lights Conference includes SoHi, Kenai, Wasilla, Colony, Palmer, and Kodiak. The top six wrestlers in each weight class advance to the ASAA 4A State Wrestling Championships.
Wrestling Schedule Re-Alignment
Wrestling re-alignment will place all classifications of Alaska high school wrestling into the late-fall season, running mid-October through mid-December beginning in 2015.
The aligned seasons will allow for one all-encompassing state tournament event; which will still crown champions in both the 1-2-3A and 4A divisions, as well as girls champions (which began in 2014).
The aligned seasons will also allow for cross-over competition during the regular season, a larger variety of invitational meets, and an opportunity for top wrestlers in different classifications to face-off during the regular season.
A major hurdle will be the overlap with the fall football season, which runs through late October for teams qualifying for the football playoffs; this is already an issue for small schools that play football and will now be an issue for medium and large school programs, including Soldotna High and Kenai Central High, that advance into the football playoffs.
With the re-alignment, large schools from Southeast will again wrestle in the same season as large schools statewide.
The newly-instituted girls wrestling state championship will continue and should grow with the consolidated seasons.
