| Wyatt Martinez works his opponent for a pin at the 3A junior high state tournament. Martinez was awarded the outstanding wrestler honor in the upper weights of the 3A division at the tournament. |
Wrestlers from Carbon County traveled to Richfield to compete in the 1A, 2A and 3A junior high state tournament. The two day meet was conducted at the Sevier Valley Center on Jan. 26 and 27.
The team placed fifth out of 14 teams in the 3A division. The local group of 11 was up against the likes of Delta, Wasatch and Uintah with over 45 wrestlers, so to finish in the top five was quite an accomplishment.
The local group had three grapplers take home the gold. Wyatt Martinez, an eighth grader from Mont Harmon won his title with a pin early in the first round. Kenny Wood also from Mont Harmon had to work a little harder winning his title in an exciting triple overtime match. Bryce Jackman, a seventh grader also from Price was down in his championship match until he turned it around in the last 25 seconds to win 9-7.
These are the second straight titles for Martinez and Jackman.
Cole Hunt and David Fonnesbeck took second place at the meet and Cody Hunt brought home sixth. Lane Neese took second place in the middle division. Kayhill Hunt and Tony Velasquez who are teammates wrestled for third place with Velasquez edging out Hunt in the end. The Carbon team was coach by Brock Fausett, Jeff Hunt, Paul Martinez, Paul Neese and Montel Jackman.