| Clay Collard against his Carbon opponent. |
Wasatch High School continued its dominance of Utah wrestling with another state title as they narrowly defeated region 8 champion Delta. Wasatch scored 311 points to Delta’s 302 points.
Clay Collard finished the best of any Emery wrestler by finishing in fifth place at 119 pounds. McKay Allred finished in sixth place in the 125-pound division.
Collard won his first match by pinning Chad Malnar of Union High in the second round. Collard then lost to Danny Pettus of Hurricane. Collard, now in the consolation bracket, then defeated Robert Dotson of Wasatch with a 10-6 decision. Collard then wrestled Cameron Holdaway of Carbon and won with an 8-7 decision. Collard lost 7-4 to Jesse Dunn of Logan for the right to wrestle for 3rd and 4th. In the 5th and 6th place battle, Collard defeated Stratton Schultz of Uintah. Collard, a freshman, went 4 and 2 in his first state tournament.
Allred took the same route as Collard but lost his last match to finish sixth. Allred opened the tournament with a pin over Jordan Archuleta of Logan in the second round. Allred then wrestled Blake Mangum of Wasatch and lost. Mangum was the eventual state champion this year. Up next for Allred was Thomas Berrett of Union and Allred pinned him in the second round. Allred then defeated McMillan of Morgan 9-7 in overtime by getting a takedown. Allred then lost to Alex Riddle of Cedar by decision and finally Taylor Merkley of Uintah by decision.
Hadan Hatch at 130 pounds for Emery lost his first match to Dan Stratton of Uintah and then defeated Tyler Libert of Bear River with a first round pin. Hatch then closed out his tournament with a loss to Larsan Cotton of Cedar.
Mike Jones at 171 pounds lost his first match to Skyler Porter of Wasatch. Porter went on to finish second in the weight. Jones defeated Jared Larsen of Logan with a 17-10 decision and then lost to Kale Watkins of Morgan.
At 189 pounds, Wade Bohn opened with a pin over Zack Williams of Ben Lomond. Bohn then lost to Garrett Gleave of Wasatch, who also went onto the state title. Bohn then lost in the consolation bracket to Chad Bradley of North Sanpete to end his season.
Kenny Baker at 215 pounds lost his opening match to Jake Benson of Cedar, then defeated Mitch Freckleton of Park City with a first round pin. Baker then lost to Jace Lee of Bear River.
At 285 pounds, Emery had two wrestlers. Cyal Christmas lost in his opening match to Rusty Farnsworth of Uintah. Farnsworth finished second in the tournament. Christmas then defeated Kyler Guerra of Ben Lomond before losing to Cody Irons of North Sanpete. Caleb Jones lost to Richard Peterson of Bear River and Steven Powell of Carbon.
Delta was the best of Region 8 teams, finishing second with 302 points. Delta won three weight classes and finished second in four others. North Sanpete finished in fourth place with 190 points. North Sanpete won 215 pounds and finished second in three other classes. Carbon scored 64 points, Emery scored 35 points and Juan Diego scored 5 points. Cole Hunt of Carbon was the only other region 8 wrestler to place.