Springville wrestlers take another Region 7 crown

LEHI — The Springville wrestling team won its second straight Region 7 championship at Lehi High School on Friday and took its starting position for a run at the state championship.

The Red Devils have been heavy favorites to win the region all year and took home the trophy without any noticeable fanfare. Their dominant lower-weight wrestlers took care of business and the upper weights picked up more than enough points for the win.

For most of the final round, Springville coach Justin Judkins and his assistants never had to move from their coaching seats on the corner of the mat. The Red Devils wrestled in 11 of the 14 final matches and easily outpaced the rest of the field.

Springville qualified 18 wrestlers for the state tournament and will now hope that its region success will provide momentum heading into next week's state tournament.

"Getting ready for this week, my emphasis really has been on state, but I talked to the boys about taking care of this one first," said Judkins. "It was really important that we had a good tournament here so we have good seeds next week. That's what we tried to do today. I thought we did great today."

Springville had eight wrestlers win individual championships and racked up 348 team points.

"We had kids that beat opponents that they had lost to previously," said Judkins. "It shows that the kids have improved. This is a team that has a lot of heart, and hopefully that's what will carry us through to a state championship. Springville's individual winners were Tyson Hamilton (112), Kolby Bradley (119), Logan Wilson (125), Hayden Petersen (130), Jacob Rawle (135), Jason Chamberlain (140), Caleb Christen (145) and Danny Hickman (285).

Coming in at second place was Lehi, with 290.5 points. The Pioneers performed well in the consolation brackets and two individual winners. Lehi coach Dan Rice believes his team also has a chance to do well at state.

"You always want more, but I'm happy," said Rice. "We qualified quite a few kids. We're going to have some tough matches (at state). I think we should be in the top 5. That's what we're shooting for. We'll see how it goes."

Other individual winners on Friday were Tito Ortiz (103), Hesston Parkin (171) and Norman Adams (189) from Payson, Jacob Sasser (152) and Tucker Nielson (215) from Lehi, and Provo's David Ojuka (171).