OREM — The state 4A and 5A wrestling tournament, held annually at the UCCU Center at Utah Valley University, will wrap up Thursday night with the crowning of as many as 14 individual champions.
Many of the local wrestlers from Davis, Viewmont, Woods Cross and Bountiful took to the wrestling mats. Winners were awarded in each of the 14 weight classes in 4A and 5A.
Filling almost all of the brackets in the 5A class were many Darts and Vikings wrestlers, who had at least one representative in all but one weight class when competition started.
For Davis, the Darts didn’t have a single individual champion from the divisional tournament, but had three prominent wrestlers in the tournament with past state experience.
Derek Thomas, who finished third in the Division A 126 pound tournament will make his return to the mat after finishing out of the top six spots in last year’s tournament. Thomas wrestled at 120 pounds last year and was eliminated after his third match.
In the 138-pound bracket, Jacob Naylor entered the tournament as the No. 3 wrestler from the divisional playoffs, and Wyatt Koelling emerged as the No. 3 seed in the 160-pound weight class.
Outside of Davis, Northridge’s Kristofe Warden entered the tournament as a No. 2 seed in the 195-pound class, and wrestled against Rhett Speth of Jordan in Wednesday’s first round.
Viewmont had plenty of representation in the 5A bracket at the start of the state tournament. Three Vikings wrestlers were No. 1 seeds from the Division B tournament.
David Kim won the 126-pound weight class in Division B, and will be looking for a higher finish in this year’s tournament. Last season, he finished fourth behind Layton’s Andrew Astle.
At 152 pounds, Tanner Law was also a No. 1 seed, and 195-pounder Jake Bednar was a No. 2 seed for the Vikings when the state tournament started.
Layton’s Ken Astle (145 pounds) and Colton Marshal (160 pounds) represented the Lancers as individual weight class winners from Division B as well.
In the 4A bracket, Bountiful had 11 grapplers start the tournament, and had four Region 6 champions in their respective weight classes before the first set of matches began.
Justin Horsley (132 pounds), Joey Barnett (138 pounds), Josh Barnett (145 pounds) and A.J. Tovey (195 pounds) each started the tournament with the momentum of winning an individual region championship.
Other brackets that had Braves in them to start the tournament were Brad Dyer (120 pounds), Jeff Adams (126 pounds), Lamar Gimmeson (145 pounds), Sergio Rodriguez (152 pounds), Preston Watton (160 pounds), Garrett Ruskauff (170 pounds), McKay Pettit (220 pounds) and Junior Hamilton (285 pounds).
Woods Cross’ representation was small entering the 4A tournament, as only five grapplers were able to reach the state level.
Its top region finishers were Davis Halls (second, 126 pounds), Houston Christiansen (fourth, 126 pounds), Stone Mele (fourth, 132 pounds), Kyle Nelson (fourth, 138 pounds), and Sam Cottam (second, 195 pounds).
The championship matches will be held at the UCCU Center Thursday starting at 6 p.m.
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