Alta wins Region 3 wrestling title

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Alta did exactly what it had done the entire season.

Win.

The Hawks were co-champions in Region 3 play with a perfect 5-0 record entering the championship bouts at Brighton High Thursday evening, and nearly topped the field by 100 points to earn the tournament crown in conclusive fashion.

"The boys came out and wrestled really well," said Alta coach Barry Harrington. "We had that first round for separation matches and the boys came out ready to go. I'm just really excited for them."

Alta finished with a total score of 381.5 ahead of second place finisher Jordan that ended the day at 293.5

"We got it snowballin' and it was nice," Harrington said.

Copper Hills (277.5), West Jordan (230.5), Brighton (198) and Cottonwood (86.5) rounded out the final standings.

Jordan's Kyler Machan won the first of four straight matches ending in pins during the championship round at 106 pounds.

With 15.3 seconds remaining in the first period, Machan had already established a hefty 10-0 lead, when the match was called.

"I went out there and had my game-plan. I had it set in my head what I wanted to do; I just went over it a couple times and gave it all I had."

Machan established position over Alta's Zane Rasmussen using a quick whip-over, but he had a different terminology for the vaunted move.

"At Jordan it's called the pancake," Machan quipped.

Only a junior, Machan is an expected contender come state tournament time.

"Last year I got a concussion at state and I took fourth. I hopin' it's my year, I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself," Machan said. "I'm going to go out there and have my game-plan, bust my (butt) and do whatever I can to get better."

In total, eight out of the 14 championship matches ended with pins: Jordan's Machan (106), Alta's Matt Findlay (113), Jordan's Joey Day (120), Brighton's Rami Haddadin (126), Alta's Will Kilpack (145), Jordan's Hayden Babka (182), Copper Hills' Christian Rixe (195) and Jordan's Zayne Sayers (220).