By Jaymi King
MANTI— Manti High School hosted their annual Manti Holiday Classics wrestling tournament last weekend, when 19 schools came from all over the state to compete for the Snowflake Trophy.
Manti wrestlers placed 10th at the tournament and North Sanpete placed third overall.
The Hawks wrestled in seven pre-bracketed matches; with the scores being Providence Hall, 65-9, Manti, 36-44, San Juan, 49-27, Union, 43-30, Juab, 23-54, North Summit, 48-34 and Wayne, 66-15. With the record, the team went on to wrestle for third and fourth place with the Milford Tigers and the Hawks secured the win, 42-31.
Four North Sanpete wrestlers went undefeated over the weekend including Cody Dyches, Krew King, Kasey Curtis and Jaxton Reyes.
This weekend was a good one for Curtis who beat the No. 1 ranked wrestler Hagen Mayer from Milford in the final round of the tournament. Mayer is a returning state finalist and Curtis said he knew the match was going to be tough.
“I just had to focus and get in the right mind set,” Curtis said. “I knew this kid was good, but I knew I had been training for moments like this.”
He was able to pin Mayer in the second period to keep his undefeated record.
Curtis also hit a huge milestone in his high school wrestling career. On Friday night during the team’s duel against Manti, he pinned Austin Denton to earn his 150th high school career win.
This has been a goal that Curtis has set for himself since he was a freshman. He has started off his senior year well with a record of 27-0 for the season. Following the holiday break will be the time when he needs to step it up in order to keep his winning record and place on the top of the podium at state, he said.
Manti wrestlers placed 10th at the tournament after some close fought battles. The team defeated Wayne, 72-12, North Sanpete, 43-36, Union, 42-39 and Providence Hall, 48-35. The Templars lost to Juab, 60-22, San Juan, 60-17, North Summit, 45-30 and Union JV 48-36.
Templar wrestlers Kelan Layton and Jace Wilson were both undefeated in the tournament.
The team has several wrestlers who have been injured early on in the season and should be back after the Christmas break.
Three Sanpete County teams, Gunnison, Manti and North Sanpete, will meet in Gunnison for the third annual Battle for the Belt on Jan. 5.
