BRIGHAM CITY — The 4A Northern Divisional wrestling tournament took place at Box Elder High School Saturday afternoon, allowing many young wrestlers to accomplish a season-long goal – qualify for state.
The dream to participate in the massive tournament and have an opportunity to claim a state title runs through the soul of every wrestler — pushing them to run that extra wind sprint, to fight through that last 30 seconds in the third period and skip after-school parties to spend time practicing. To finally qualify can only be described as a jubilant relief.
"It feels pretty awesome, it's just a good feeling," said Box Elder's Britton Gunter after securing a spot in the state tournament. "I get to go represent my team. It's mostly mental preparation, I know that I can compete with the tougher guys, I just need to get the right mentality."
Gunter earned a third-place finish in the 160-pound weight division after beating Tyrell Ostrud from Stansbury.
"I tried to make him beat me in the third round, and I just stayed in good position," said Gunter, "I tried not too make many big errors. I'm feeling pretty good right now."
Depending on weight classification, either the top seven or eight wrestlers earned invitations to state tournament at Utah Valley University next week. The divisional tournament was set up with four mats, with four matches going simultaneously at once to accommodate both Regions 5 and 6.
Pete Olvany from Logan High cashed a ticket in the 215-pound class after going 4-2 Saturday, good enough for fourth place in his division.
"I worked hard every night at practice and did what my coaches asked me to," stated Olvany. "I don't think I'll do too bad (at state)."
Olvany stated that he's confident that he could place roughly around third place in his weight division next week.
Box Elder and Mountain Crest produced the most state qualifiers with 25 and 23, respectively.
Woods Cross, Bonneville, Tooele, Stansbury, Bountiful, Logan, Highland, Olympus, Sky View and East all had state qualifiers.
The 14 individual winners in their respected divisions were Box Elder's Shand Hardy (103 pounds), Stansbury's Logan Stewart (112), Mountain Crest's Brady Dart (119), Logan's Quinn Hinckley (125), Logan's Isaac Harrison (130), Box Elder's Rasten Yeates (135), Box Elder's Cody Bunderson (140), Sky View's Brayden Anderson (145), Box Elder's Koleton Hardy (152), Tooele's Thomas Manning (160), Olympus' Brandon McBride (171), Mountain Crest's Joseph Carley (189), Mountain Crest's Sylas Wells (215) and Box Elder's Shyane Hardy (285).
e-mail: tphibbs@desnews.com