After a year of big wins and high hopes, just 19 points separated the South Summit Wildcats from Millard at the 2A Utah High School State Wrestling Championships at Utah Valley University last weekend.
“Millard won’t go off that top spot easy,” said South Summit head coach Gary Crandall after seeing that the team had lost 264.5 to 245.5.
It was a grand accomplishment in itself to take second in that fashion, considering that Millard has won 10 state championships since the Wildcats last won the title in 1997 and generally, South Summit finishes about 70 points behind Millard.
“We knew we had a shot coming in,” said Crandall. “We needed a couple more win. We were hoping to come out 20 points higher, but that’s the way it goes. We had some kids who stepped it up and overachieved.”
The boys still walked away with plenty of hardware. Besides the second-place trophy, the Wildcats also took away the Coach of the Year award for Gary Crandall and the Outstanding Wrestler award for Colton Thornton.
“The [individual] state championship was good, but this put the cherry on top,” said Thornton, who won the state title in the 103-pound weight class.
For Crandall, the award was bittersweet.
“I’d turn it in a second for the gold trophy,” Crandall said.
The winning for the Wildcats started out early with Thornton at 103 pounds followed by a strange turn of events in the 112-pound weight class. South Summit freshman Jeff McCormick reached the state championship round against Millard’s, Kamron Day. With adrenaline pumping, Day had McCormick in an interesting hold, when the referee called the match. McCormick was sure he had been pinned for the loss when he saw his coaches jumping up and down.
“I thought I was pinned,” McCormick said. “then I looked at my coaches and they were going ballistic.”
Day had put his shoulders on the mat, meaning he had actually pinned himself, thereby giving the win to McCormick.
“You can’t put your shoulders down,” Crandall said. “I would have felt worse if it were against my kid,” he said, smiling.
“I did the best I could,” McCormick said. It’s pretty exciting.”
South Summit senior Kendall Prescott, in the 145-pound weight class, continued his win streak with his second straight state title.
“This one felt a little better,” he said, smiling. “It’s my senior year.”
Prescott said he went into match determined to get the first takedown. He was able to get it and was able to keep the upper hand from there on.
“This year had been good,” he said.
Prescott said that once Crandall told them they had a legitimate shot at beating Millard, the team focus shot through the roof.
“We had that on our minds all year,” he said.
Fellow senior KC Fryer was equally elated after winning at the 152-pound weight class. After taking third in the state last year, this was a perfect ending for Fryer.
“It was wonderful,” he said. “I just went after it and didn’t let him get an edge on me.”
However, Crandall was a little disappointed when Ryan Card barely missed the state championship in the 171-pound weight division.
“I though he had enough to win,” Crandall said. “He just didn’t get the call.”
Crandall said that the seniors had set a goal at the beginning year and put their hearts and souls in trying to win the state championship.
The Wildcats should have an even better shot at the title next year. Millard loses a large senior class, while South Summit will stay relatively intact and gain some freshman talent.
“We’re closing [in on Millard],” Crandall said. “We’re going to go back to work. We hope to make it back next year.”
It was also a successful weekend for North Summit, which finished in fifth place with a number of wrestlers in the finals. Working with a small, injury-plagued team for most of the season, head coach Rene Potter said he was thrilled with how well his team performed.
“It was awesome,” Potter said. “We were short, but the ones we had they all had a big meet.”
Even more impressive is that most of the team’s top-finishing wrestlers were underclassmen. In the finals, North Summit had two freshmen, one sophomore and one junior.
“They are just a great bunch of kids,” Potter said. “You couldn’t ask for a better bunch,”
North Summit’s Chris Robinson at 103 pounds, Dixon Richins at 125 pounds, Daniel Beenfield at 130 pounds and Courtney Orgill at 135 pounds all took second at the state championships.
“All four of my kids left everything out there,” Potter said. “They fought really hard. I wasn’t disappointed at all.”
Orgill had mixed emotions after the meet.
“Its not what I wanted, but I’ll take it,” he said. “It’s been a pretty tough season.”
North Summit should be revamped next year, with a strong incoming class and of lot of kids returning from injuries. The Braves, who have long been known for their dominance in the upper weights before this year, could also regain their foothold in that area.
Park City also found success at the state championships with a fifth-place finish from 125-pounder Justus Minardi. The junior finished just out of the top six last year and was determined to get on the podium this time around.
“I was pretty happy with it,” he said.
Minardi said that despite a couple of glitches along the way that might have moved him up a place or two, he felt he wrestled the best he could. That said, Minardi is already eyeing the top of the podium next year.
“Next year is my year,” he said.
The year-round wrestler plans on training intensely though the off-season, and even mixing in some martial arts to give him an edge.
Park City brought three other wrestlers to the state championship meet. Unlike past years, the Miners boasted an almost-complete team and some very talented wrestlers. Minardi said that this allowed them to focus a lot more of their practice time on strength and conditioning farther than the fundamentals.
“It was much better than last year,” he said.