North Sanpete Hawks
North Sanpete wrestlers spent a busy week on the mat, grappling against one of the best teams in 3A and then competing at one of their toughest tournaments of the season.
The Hawks hosted the Juab Wasps, the No. 1 ranked team in 3A, on Thursday, Dec. 2. Hawk seniors Kasey Curtis and Kylan Taylor were the only two able to pull off wins against the Wasps. North Sanpete fell to Juab, 15-60.
The Hawk wrestlers spent the next two days at the Millard Ironman, which is known as one of the toughest tournaments of the season. As a team they had five wins to four losses with two of those losses being within two points. The team placed first in the bronze bracket.
Curtis went undefeated over the weekend with a record of 9-0. Taylor and freshman Cody Dyches finished with 8-1 records and Cache Nicholson and Krew King both had 7-2 records as the top wrestlers from the team.
“The boys showed a lot of fight and heart this week proving they are ready to compete,” Coach Kris King said. “They are getting better with every match. We still have a lot of improvement, but the one thing this team has that you can’t teach is heart.”
Gunnison Valley Bulldogs
The Gunnison Valley wrestlers hosted the Alta Hawks as their home opener on Tuesday, Nov. 30.
With wins coming from only a couple wrestlers, the Bulldogs couldn’t pull ahead to take the win. Tezlin Winn, Tray Cox and Greg Liefting all pinned their opponents, but it just wasn’t enough. They fell to the Hawks 18-45.
The Bulldogs also competed over the weekend at the Skyhawk Showdown at Salem Hills High School. The team only had two wrestlers place in the top six of their weight class.
Jerrit Anderson placed fourth with a record of 4-3, losing to Kole Johnson of Grantsville in the placing match.
Winn wrestled extremely well over the weekend, but fell short in the finals match against Russel Evans of Beaver.
Manti High Templars
The Manti High wrestling season started off with two days of tough and strenuous competition at the Panguitch Invitational tournament. Not only did the team do well, finishing in third place out of 18 teams, many individual wrestlers also made it to the podium.
In the individual rankings, Manti had several wrestlers earn their place on the podium. Austin Denton won 1st place in the 132-pound weight class and Kelan Layton took 1st place in the 157-pound class; each wrestler pinned their opponents in the first round. Also atop the podium were Drake Mayfield with 2nd place in the 138-pound class and Dallin Sweat, who earned 2nd place in the 190-pound weight class. Trever Fowles placed 4th in the 106-pound class, while Kaden Owens and Kayden Blackham each placed 6th in the 120- and 126-pound classes respectively.
The Lady Templars also had a good day of wrestling: They took 5th place as a team, and three wrestlers placed in the top four in their weight classes. Both Isabella Ciballa and Ali Hatch took second place in their weights, while Danelynn Castro took third place in her weight class.
