MT. PLEASANT—The North Sanpete girls wrestling team held their first ever girls home dual meet against Union High School on Wednesday, Jan 5.
Coach Doug Spencer said the dual meet was originally scheduled as an away dual at Union on Dec. 9, but repeated snowstorms prevented that travel. Both teams continued to look at scheduling opportunities and a last-minute dual at North Sanpete became possible.
“A big thank you to the athletic directors at both Union and North Sanpete for helping put this together last minute,” Spencer said.
The Lady Hawks finished ahead of the Union cougars with a 60-12 victory in the first ever dual meeting between these teams.
Spencer said that regardless of the result, every girl had notable victories.
Willow Stewart improved her season record to 10-1 by pinning her opponent in 59 seconds. Emma Johansen, Annika Moffitt and Olivia Richmond, all first-year wrestlers from the Hawks, secured wins for the team. Overall, eight Lady Hawks won their matches with pins.
Both North Sanpete and Union teams are examples of the explosive growth in Utah girls wrestling. Union grew from eight wrestlers in 2020-21 to a roster of 20 in 2021-22. North Sanpete ended last season with three wrestlers and built a roster of 14 girls for 2021-22.
On Saturday, Jan 8 the Lady Hawks traveled to Vernal to compete in the first ever Tournament of Champions girl’s tournament. The team took an impressive third place finish. Individually Journey Toomey, Moffitt and Richmond all placed second with Libby Booher, Belen Wright, Whitney Kinross and Shae Rawlinson reaching the podium at third place.
This North Sanpete team has been training hard since November and getting in hundreds of reps of new technique drills. The girls are doing a great job of putting those practice drills together during challenging matches like the ones against Union.
