Seemingly nothing could stop Cody Weldon this year as he tore his way to the top of Alaska high school wrestling. The Juneau-Douglas High School senior worked all season with a confidence and tenacity that couldn\u2019t be denied, winning six tournaments on his way to last weekend\u2019s Alaska Scholastic Activities Association state championships.<\/p>\n
So when spectators at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage saw Weldon atop the podium Saturday, it came as no surprise to see the 220-pound grappler celebrate something he\u2019s worked for since middle school: an Alaska wrestling state championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been something I have been trying to get to for a long time,\u201d Weldon said. \u201cI\u2019ve worked pretty hard to get here, had a lot of support from my coaches in all my sports, and I finally was able to make everything click and work. It feels pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weldon defeated Service\u2019s Kaden Caldarera by major decision 10-1 in the finals. He worked through his four early round matches with three pins and a technical fall (wrestling\u2019s version of the mercy rule) before facing Caldarera.<\/p>\n
Weldon knew his championship opponent well, having faced \u2014 and pinned \u2014 Caldarera twice in the regular season, first at the Colony Invitational and again at the Lancer Smith Memorial tournament.<\/p>\n
Though head wrestling coach Jason Boyer said it was \u201ctotal domination\u201d by Weldon in the finals, Caldarera\u2019s familiarity threw a wrinkle in Weldon\u2019s plans. His idea was to tie Caldarera up and tire him out with head pressure while looking for a takedown opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew that when I tied up, A: I was going to have good head pressure, and B: I was going to look for either underhooks and a throw or head lock to throw him to his back,\u201d Weldon explained. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t let me tie up, so I had to work wrist control to try and get the arm drag so I could get in for a high crotch for a single (-leg takedown). That\u2019s how I ended up taking him down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weldon had come tantalizingly close to a state title before. Last year at the state tournament, he stood one step away from his championship aspirations, ultimately falling in the 182-lbs state title match to Ketchikan senior Nate Fousel.<\/p>\n
This year, Weldon moved up to 220 and pursued his goal with a single mind: he wasn\u2019t about to let his last shot at a state title slip through his fingers. His success during the regular season led to a top seed at state.<\/p>\n
But not everything went according to plan at his final tournament. Weldon expected his stiffest competition to come from Colony\u2019s Austin Farris, whom he bested earlier this year in a tough match at the Lancer Smith Memorial tournament finals.<\/p>\n
Farris, possibly to avoid Weldon, moved up to 285 weight class. His absence, though removing a major obstacle to the finals, led to an unexpected bracket for Weldon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little bit happy that he moved up. I wasn\u2019t sure why, maybe he thought he had a better chance at 285, and more power to him,\u201d Weldon said.<\/p>\n
An opening round upset saw Colony\u2019s Isaiah Christy, the tournament\u2019s No. 2 seed, fall to Palmer\u2019s Travis Wheeler, the tournament\u2019s No. 8, removing another obstacle for Weldon.<\/p>\n
When speaking about his championship win, Weldon stressed his gratitude to all the coaches who\u2019ve helped him over the years and pushed him to work hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cMercer sought me out, and said, \u2018Do you want to win? Do you want to be a champion?\u2019 \u2026 He was the guy that inspired me to win and Ken Brown was the guy who made it happen. He was always the one yelling at me to run faster and do more pushups and work harder in practice. He\u2019s probably the reason I have drive to win in wrestling. Those two guys are the biggest inspiration in my wrestling career,\u201d Weldon said.<\/p>\n
Boyer, who took Weldon on this year as the JDHS program merged with Thunder Mountain, said Weldon\u2019s success came from the confluence of motivation, confidence, strength and wrestling IQ.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe led by example,\u201d Boyer said. \u201cMade every practice, even when he was hurt. His work ethic paid dividends in the final stretch for win state.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduating from JDHS, Weldon plans to either compete for San Jose State University in judo, a sport in which he\u2019s a Junior Olympic champion, or accept one of several wrestling scholarships he\u2019s been offered.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mays, Rubenstein finish fourth at state<\/strong><\/p>\n Freshman Jahrease Mays and senior Louie Rubenstein both made it to the podium this weekend at the state tournament, Mays in the 106-pound weight class and Rubenstein at 182.<\/p>\n Rubenstein wrapped up his final campaign by beating North Pole\u2019s CJ Fontana by a 4-3 decision in the consolation round semis before losing a 9-2 decision to Ketchikan\u2019s Cameron Harris in the third place match.<\/p>\n Mays finished a promising freshman campaign by beating Wasilla\u2019s Alexander Logson in a 7-1 tiebreaker before losing a 6-3 decision to Colony\u2019s Vincent Cramer in the third place match.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Team totals at ASAA <\/strong><\/p>\n 4A wrestling state <\/strong><\/p>\n championships<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Colony High School 269.5; 2. Wasilla High School 245.5; 3. Lathrop Wrestling 196.0; 4. South Anchorage High School 141.0; 5. Ketchikan 128.0; 6. Palmer 125.0; 7. North Pole 110.5; 8. Soldotna 82.5; 9. Eagle River 67.0; 10. Thunder Mountain 65.5<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Juneau wrestlers who placed at state<\/strong><\/p>\n 106 LBS<\/strong><\/p>\n 4th: Jahrease Mays (8-4)<\/p>\n Cons. Semi – Jahrease Mays (Thunder Mountain) 8-4 won in tie breaker over Alexander Logson (Wasilla High School) 21-12 (TB-1 7-1)<\/p>\n 3rd Place Match – Vincent Cramer (Colony High School) 33-6 won by decision over Jahrease Mays (Thunder Mountain) 8-4 (Dec 6-3)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 182 LBS<\/strong><\/p>\n 4th: Louie Rubenstein (21-10)<\/p>\n Cons. Semi – Louie Rubenstein (Thunder Mountain) 21-10 won by decision over CJ Fontana (North Pole Patriots ) 16-9 (Dec 4-3)<\/p>\n 3rd Place Match – Cameron Harris (Ketchikan High School) 23-12 won by decision over Louie Rubenstein (Thunder Mountain) 21-10 (Dec 9-2)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 220 LBS<\/strong><\/p>\n 1st: Cody Weldon (20-1) Champ. Round 1 – Cody Weldon (Thunder Mountain) 20-1 won by fall over Tyler Cross (South Anchorage High School) 9-13 (Fall 3:19)<\/p>\n Quarterfinal – Cody Weldon (Thunder Mountain) 20-1 won by fall over Maximus Stokes<\/p>\n Semifinal – Cody Weldon (Thunder Mountain) 20-1 won by tech fall over Gideon Cole (West Valley Wolfpack) 30-7 (TF-1.5 4:33 (15-0))<\/p>\n Finals – Cody Weldon (Thunder Mountain) 20-1 won by major decision over Kaden Caldarera (Service High School Cougars) 25-6 (MD 10-1)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seemingly nothing could stop Cody Weldon this year as he tore his way to the top of Alaska high school wrestling. The Juneau-Douglas High School senior worked all season with a confidence and tenacity that couldn\u2019t be denied, winning six tournaments on his way to last weekend\u2019s Alaska Scholastic Activities Association state championships. So when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":33184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-33183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33183"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}