High school wrestling: 3A elite take care of business at wrestling regionals

The big four in 3A wrestling positioned themselves nicely to make a run at a state championship following Saturday's regional wrestling meets.

Region 9 and 12 battled in the Southern Regional at Desert Hills High School, while Region 10 and 11 faced off in the Northern Regional at Ben Lomond High School.

Delta won the Southern Regional with 379.5 points with Payson coming in second with 340.5.

The Rabbits qualified 20 wrestlers to state but only had two individual champions with Dane Nielson winning at 160 and Ryan Petersen prevailing at 182.

Payson finished with less state tournament qualifiers (17), but twice as many first-place finishes as Mitch Brown (126), Jed Mellen (132), Zac Loveless (138) and Cole Ford (145) all won titles in succession.

Delta's depth won out at regionals, something the three-time state champs are counting on again next week.

Team scores were not kept at the Northern Regionals, but Wasatch and Uintah had the most success. Uintah had 17 qualifiers and four first-place finishers, while Wasatch had 15 qualifiers and and four first-place finishers as well.

Wasatch's champions were Caden Clyde (106), Garrett Sweat (120), Morgan Sweat (126) and Will Edler (182). Uintah's champs were Beau Blackham (132), Dakotah Holmes (152), Chet Boren (160) and Jed Rich (285)

Bear River will have a lot of depth at state after qualifying 23 wrestlers to state.

Here's a complete rundown of all the wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament.

3A Southern Regional

At Desert Hills High School

Team scores

1. Delta, 379.5; 2. Payson, 340.5; 3. Cedar, 210; 4. Canyon View, 204.5; 5. Hurricane, 197.5; 6. Desert Hills, 180; 7. Juab, 176; 8. Snow Canyon, 169; 9. North Sanpete, 127; 10. Pine View, 125.

Individual results

106 — 1. Josh Pettus, Hurricane; 2. Kohl Tolbert, Delta; 3. Joe Mondragon, Desert Hills; 4. James Wright, Spanish Fork; 5. Josh Allen, Delta; 6. Kade Scott, Carbon; 7. Austin Davis, Snow Canyon; 8. Blake Robinson, Canyon View.

113 — 1. Dusty Hone, Cedar; 2. Jose Garcia, Delta; 3. Riley Loveless, Payson; 4. Kenny Lopez, Canyon View; 5. Mitch Taylor, Snow Canyon; 6. Cooper Thorpe, Spanish Fork; 7. Josh Watts, North Sanpete; 8. Zack Driffill, Canyon View.