SALINA—North Sanpete wrestlers placed five of their nine varsity wrestlers in the finals at the North Sevier Invitational this past weekend; and three of them earned gold.
Cody Dyches (106 pounds), Kasey Curtis (126 pounds) and Kylan Taylor (144 pounds) all brought home gold medals after competing this past weekend. Krew King (106 pounds) and James Gren (132 pounds) also made it to the finals but came up short and ended with a second-place finish. Owen Sunderland (190 pounds) placed fifth and Karson Curtis (157 pounds) finished in eighth place to round out the Hawks’ top finishers.
Dyches and King were wrestling in the same bracket and met up in the finals. The match was a close one with Dyches pulling out the win with a pin late in the second period. These two boys are closely matched and should continue to place high on the podium well into state. Dyches was also named as lower weight outstanding wrestler of the tournament.
Kasey Curtis went into this tournament seated first with a 38-3 season record. He met up with Clayton Anzalone from Enterprise, who is ranked third in their weight class in 2A. After an early takedown by Anzalone in the first period, Kasey dominated the remainder of the match to win a major decision of 11-2.
“I knew that we had met our match when I saw this matchup,” Coach Andy Messersmith of Enterprise said.
Messersmith, a former North Sanpete coach, was excited to see these two wrestlers, he said.
“Kasey is having a great season and so I knew it was going to be tough,” he said. “They will likely meet up again next weekend at our home tournament; we will take lessons from this match and see where we end up.”
Taylor was looking for the top of the podium this weekend and knew that there were a few possible matchups that could cause it to go either way. He faced off with Cedar’s Cooper Anderson in the finals and was able to pull off the win to bring home the gold with a score of 10-5.
For the more seasoned wrestlers, this tournament was a little more laid-back. Kasey, a senior captain, said that he enjoyed this past weekend because he was able to work with the younger wrestlers and help coach them through their tougher matches.
While North Sanpete was at North Sevier, wrestlers from Manti and Gunnison traveled to the Salt Palace to take part in the Rockwell Rumble.
Both teams struggled to reach the podium this weekend at one of the toughest tournaments in the state. Injuries and illness plagued both teams this past week leaving some of their top wrestlers out.
