| A Carbon High wrestler sizes up his opponent. The Dino’s finished in third place at the region tournament. |
Carbon finished 3rd at their region competition which according to Coach Dave Smith was their predicted position, what was not predicted however was how close they came to winning it all.
Carbon wrestlers were close to the lead right up to the final round.
According to Smith there were many big upsets during the tournament most of which came when Carbon wrestlers defeated someone to whom they had lost previously. The wrestlers scored many big upsets in the semi-final round.
Matt Salas who was a number six seed defeated a three seed in round one and followed that by defeating a number two seed in the semi’s.
Brandon Branch, a four seed met Zack Oppenheimer of Delta in the semi-final round. Oppenheimer had defeated Branch twice prior to the region competition. Branch scored not only a win but a first round pin. Branch followed that with another first round pin in the finals
Steven Scow scored the biggest upset of the tournament with an overtime victory Michael Bishop of Juan Diego who had placed second at the state tournament last year. “It was a great and hard fought come from behind win for Carbon,” said Coach Smith.
Another big victory for Carbon came when Tyson Herrick met Zane Christensen of North Sanpete. Herrick was 0-8 lifetime vs. Christensen but the region tournament proved to be Herrick’s coming out party. There were several highly disputed calls in the match. According to Smith all calls went to Christensen leaving what did not seem to be a close match tied as time was running out. Herrick scored a reversal at the final horn to score an 8-6 victory.
Preston Lodeserto was dominate during the tournament. He destroyed the competition on the way to a 14-7 victory in the finals, to win gold along with Herrick and Branch.
Placing second for the Dinos was Nico Velasquez, Tanner Herrick, Steven Scow, Matt Salas, Davey Cox and Jay Workman. Finishing third for the Dino’s was Cameron Holdaway and Mike Tryon. Derek Horrocks, Patrick Strey and Alex Collins finished fourth.
The Dion’s will be traveling to the state competition in Orem on Feb. 8, 9 and 10.