4A high school wrestling: Golden Eagles closing in on title

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OREM — Maple Mountain head coach Justin Judkins would prefer to win the 4A state wrestling championship by flying under the radar. But no matter how you end up there, the goal is to be atop the standings when the competition is over.

"I'd rather not have a target on our back, but we're ranked first," Judkins said after the Golden Eagles wrestled their way to a lead going into Thursday's last matches at the UCCU Center on the campus of Utah Valley University.

Maple Mountain — totaling 147 points — qualified 25 wrestlers for the state tournament, and 11 of those remain in the semifinals of the championship bracket.

Defending 4A champion Box Elder sits in second place with 123 points. The Bees have 10 wrestlers left (of the 17 they qualified for state) in the semifinals of the championship bracket.

Box Elder head coach Mike Ripplinger likes his team's chances.

"We obviously wanted to keep it close, and I think we've put ourselves in a position where we can make a move," he said.

The top two schools will go head-to-head in a pair of matches that will go a long way in determining the winner in the team standings.

Box Elder's Nick Sorenson — who is 37-1 on the season and Region 5's top wrestler at 160 pounds — will take on Logan Kinross of Maple Mountain, while the Golden Eagles' Mitch Kay will go against McKay Parrish of Box Elder for the right to wrestle for the state title.

A pair of Maple Mountain wrestlers will try to make it two state titles in a row. At 112 pounds, Britain Carter was the state champ at 112 last year, while teammate Grant LaMont — wrestling at 138 — won at 130 a year ago.

Box Elder's Rasten Yeates — who won the state title at 135 last year — is trying to win this season at 152.

The Golden Eagles' Kimball Bastian — 41-3 this year and Region 8's top-ranked at 152 — will have to get by teammate Kieffer Taylor to challenge for the state title.