Delta takes region 8 wrestling, Emery is 4th
| McKay Allred, top, from Emery places second at region. |
There were very few surprises last Friday and Saturday at Carbon High School during the region 8 wrestling championships. Delta, like always, won the region championship overwhelmingly over the other four region teams. Delta had a team score of 450.5, North Sanpete was second with a score of 277.5, and Carbon was third with a score of 218.5, Emery fourth at 137 and Juan Diego last at 77.5.
Delta won 10 individual region championships while North Sanpete won the other four. North Sanpete had six wrestlers finish second while Delta had three wrestlers finish second. Emery and Carbon each had two wrestlers finish second while Juan Diego had one wrestler finish in second place.
For the Spartans, McKay Allred finished second 125 lbs and Clay Collard finished second at 119 lbs. Allred now has a season record of 35-7 while Collard’s season record is now 19-11. Collard upset Kenny Wood of Carbon in the second round. Wood had a season record of 33-9. Wood lost to Shawn Erickson of Delta who now has a season record of 39-10. Allred lost to Derek Peterson of Delta. Peterson is now 39-6.
Five Emery Spartans finished in third place in the tournament. Hayden Hatch, at 23-15, pinned Nico Velasquez of Carbon for third place in the 130 lb division. Velasquez had a record of 27-5.
Mike Jones, in the 171 lb division, defeated Brandon Branch of Carbon for third. Jones is now 24-10 while Branch is 33-11.
Wade Bohn, who was the only Spartan to garner a number one seed and this came in the 189 lb division, also finished third. Wade, at 30-5, defeated Kipp Holman of Delta. Holman’s record is 39-7.
Kenny Baker, in the 215 lb division, also finished third with a victory over Dylan Thomas of Delta. Baker now stands at 19-7 while Thomas is 25-16. In the 285 lb division, Cyal Christmas at 13-5 defeated Weston Stanworth of Delta. Stanworth is 24-16 for the season.
With Caleb Jones at 285 also qualifying for the state tournament along with the seven others, Emery doubled their state participants this season.
Emery went into the region tournament with only 15 wrestlers compared to 27 for Delta and 24 for North Sanpete and 21 for Carbon. More wrestlers equates to more opportunity and therefore higher scores.
Delta finished with 10 firsts, 3 seconds, 2 thirds and 2 fourths. North Sanpete finished with 4 firsts, 6 seconds and 1 fourth. Carbon finished with 2 seconds, 8 thirds and 3 fourths.
After the meet, Coach Buck Taylor talked about the season, “We had hoped to have nine make state but we had an injury that kept Jake Gardner off the mat. We doubled our state representation this year and should have had more fans here to support this team. We need more community support.”
The Emery team will now travel to UVSC for the state meet this week.