Emery High senior wrestler Zack West won the 220 pound weight division at the Utah State 2-A wrestling championship tournament held last weekend at the Maverik Center in West Valley City in conjunction with the other state championships. West led the Spartans to a seventh place team finish.
Delta High School won their sixth straight state wrestling title and 34th overall. The past five titles came in the 3-A ranks but the Rabbits were placed in the 2-A ranks this season because of declining enrollment. Delta scored 260 points and was followed by last season’s 2-A champion and fellow Millard County school, Millard High with 218 points. North Sevier with 187 points, Beaver with 137 points, South Summit with 126 points and North Summit with 110 points all finished ahead of Emery. The Spartans scored 100 points.
Emery took nine wrestlers to the tournament and five of them won their opening match and eventually placed. In addition to West, Matt Mecham and Ryan Cox also made it to the championship match but they lost that match. Mecham went up against a 2-time returning state champion from North Sevier in the title match and lost that one while Cox went against a Delta wrestler and Ryan lost that one in overtime. Cox’s match was controversial as the Rabbit wrestler was awarded two penalty points, one right at the end of the match, because the referee insisted that Cox was stalling. Needless to say that call irritated some people.
West opened with a pin over a Manti wrestler, then decisioned a Millard wrestler 6-3 and pinned a South Summit wrestler to advance to the title bout. West defeated a Delta wrestler for the title.
Cox, at 145 pounds, also defeated a Manti wrestler to open the tournament, he followed that pin with a decision over a South Sevier wrestler and another decision over a Millard wrestler to get to the title bout.
Mecham, at 160 pounds, pinned another Manti wrestler to start the tournament, followed up with a decision over a Millard wrestler and a fall against a San Juan wrestler to get to the title match.
David Bird at 126 pounds placed fourth and McKoy Christiansen at 120 pounds placed fifth to be the only other Spartans to win a match at the tournament. Also wrestling for the Spartans in the Maverik Center were Cole Stoddard at 113 pounds who went as an alternate, Justin Jennings at 126 pounds, Hunter Hatch at 170 pounds and Duncan Thomas at 220 pounds.
West is the best
"Zach West is the state 2A champion in the 220 weight division."