ST. GEORGE — There was never a doubt about first place, but second place for the three 4A classification schools in Region 9 was up in the air, or down on the mat until the very end. Pine View High needed only half of its 14 finals' matches to breeze to the title with 311 points at Pine View Friday night.
Dixie High needed its last three matches to nudge 5.5 points ahead of Snow Canyon to finish second with 217 points to Snow's 211.50.
"We were down by 40," said Dixie's 1st-year head coach Mike Casperson. "It was a good comeback."
Dixie had four first-place finishes, including Jordan Cataway (135), Greg Hall (171), Chunner Nyberg (189) and Trent Nelson (215).
Pine View coach Brett Gifford thought his team would do well at the region tournament.
"But I was surprised that we did that well," he said. "Having 14 in the finals was really good. It's tough in a 3-team region, many good players are left behind."
Pine View's Jordan Gary, the No. 1 ranked 4A wrestler in the state in the 275-pound class, had a good word for his victory after pinning Snow Canyon's Chad Gough in the final match of the tournament.
"Awesome," said Gary. "I wrestled hard and we had a good season."
Gary was one of seven 1st-place finishers for the Panthers. Snow Canyon had three finish as region champions.
Competing hard and winning was nothing new for returning region champion Nyberg, who has enjoyed success in other sports at Dixie High. "It was my senior year and my last region tournament," he said. "I wanted to work hard give it all I had."
Nyberg, who finished the wrestling regular season with a 38-2 record, signed to play baseball at BYU. When asked what sport he likes best, he answered: "Whatever season I'm in."
Evidently, wrestling is now Nyberg's favorite, as the grapplers head to state next week at Utah Valley University beginning on Wednesday and concluding Friday for the big schools.
Team scores
1, Pine View, 311; 2, Dixie, 217; 3, Snow Canyon, 211.50.
Individual results
103 — 1, Tony Torres, Pine View; 2, Mitch Taylor, Snow Canyon; 3, Nick Rost, Pine View; 4, Bye.
112 — Ty Mangum, Snow Canyon; 2, Eli Williams, Pine View; Troy Whitehead, Snow Canyon; 4, Jacob Sisson, Dixie.
119 — 1, Brayden Odette, Pine View; 2, CJ Davis, Snow Canyon; 3, Tyler Olsen, Dixie; 4, Davis Anderson, Snow Canyon.
125 — 1, Luke Peck, Pine View; 2, Justin Crapo, Dixie; 3, Alan Wilde, Snow Canyon; 4, Spencer Sorenson, Snow Canyon.
130 — 1, Lewis Wilde, Snow Canyon; 2, Chris Carlson, Pine View; 3, Zach Sorenson, Dixie; 4, Gavin Forbes, Dixie.
135 — 1, Jordan Calaway, Dixie; 2, Zach Stoddard, Pine View; 3, Paul Leatherbury, Pine View; 4, Ryan Briggs, Snow Canyon.
140 — 1, Trevor Nelson, Snow Canyon; 2, Aron Hall, Pine View; 3, Kolby Hughes, Dixie; 4, Geoff Hall, Dixie.
145 — 1, Taylor Anderson, Pine View; 2, Dee Larsen, Dixie; 3, Chris Gibbs, Dixie; 4, Taylor Anderson, Snow Canyon.
152 — 1, Trevor Thompson, Pine View; 2, Shane Wright, Pine View; 3, Kelby Lytle, Snow Canyon; 4, Kameron Ivie, Dixie.
160 — 1, Devon Montgomery-Haskell, Pine View; 2, Zane Henstra, Snow Canyon; 3, Tanner Theobald, Dixie; 4, Tavish Nelson, Snow Canyon.
171 — 1, Greg Hall, Dixie; 2, Drew Boatright, Snow Canyon; 3, Issac Katoa, Pine View; 4, Tagi Johnson, Snow Canyon.
189 — 1, Chunner Nyberg, Dixie; 2, Matt Feula, Pine View; 3, Adrian Miguel, Pine View; 4, Robert Spencer, Dixie.
215 —1, Trent Nelson Dixie; 2, Jake Hutson, Pine View; 3, Chris Warren, Dixie; 4, Wes Gardner, Pine View.
275 — 1, Jordan Gary, Pine View; 2, Chad Gough, Snow Canyon; 3, CJ Yergenson, Snow Canyon; 4, Taylor Dickey, Pine View.