OREM — Over 700 prep wrestlers from 71 different teams spanning six different states descended upon Utah Valley’s UCCU Event Center this past weekend for the 2015 Rockwell Rumble.
There was some incredible wrestling with weight classes stacked with nationally ranked wrestlers and past state champions and placers. And amongst this deep field of wrestling talent, two freshmen emerged as Rumble champions.
Box Elder’s Brock Hardy took home the gold at 132 pounds, and one match later at 138 pounds, Juan Diego’s John Manning followed with his own stellar performance.
Both wrestlers navigated through large fields as the 132-pound weight class featured 56 wrestlers and the 138-pound division had 60 wrestlers battling it out.
Hardy actually came into the tournament as the No. 1 seed with a 31-1 record. His only loss at the Wasatch Intermountain Duals was to Taylor LaMont of Maple Mountain.
Like Hardy and Manning, LaMont was a freshman sensation. Now a junior, LaMont has two state titles to his credit, and by the way, picked up the title at the Rumble at 126 pounds.
Manning, 24-4 on the season, was the fourth seed and had several tough bouts on the way to the top of the podium. In the quarterfinals, Manning had to knock off Hardy’s Bee teammate Kyle Smith, a past state placer, 3-1. Then he upset the No. 1 seed Alius Delarosa from Post Falls High School in Idaho, 4-2. Then finally in the championship finals, he had to face one of the wrestlers that had given him a loss this season in Herriman’s Jaron Jensen.
It was a terrific match that needed more than the regulation six minutes to decide the outcome. With the scored tied in the second overtime session, Manning caught Jensen on his back for a 2-point near fall to go ahead 5-3. Then Manning chose down in the third session. Jensen elected to go for the turn but Manning executed a granby roll for a reversal and additional 3-point near fall to give the Juan Diego grappler his 10-3 victory.
Hardy had a much easier time going through his bracket. He was simply dominant from start to finish, including his championship match, where he polished off a dominant performance by cruising past Beaver’s Kyle Evans 13-5. Evans is no slouch either as a past 2A state champion with a 25-2 record this season. In total, Hardy pocketed six wins in the tournament, four of them by pin.
And by the way, Hardy wasn’t the only freshman to place at 132 pounds as Maple Mountain’s Brandyn VanTassell placed seventh.
What is remarkable about Hardy, Manning and VanTassell is their success as freshmen in weights more to the middle of the bell curve of athletes that wrestle.
Yes, freshmen often do make their mark in wrestling, but usually in the lighter weights where they more often compete against wrestlers their same age. In fact, the weight class in which Manning competed was the largest in tournament, and the vast majority of wrestlers were juniors and seniors.
In regards to the team race, Pleasant Grove (209.5) bested Utah County rival Maple Mountain (193.5) to win the tournament. Post Falls (187.5) from Idaho was third, Wasatch (181.5) was fourth and 2A juggernaut Delta (150.5) rounded out the top five.
The Vikings placed six wrestlers in the tournament with Koy Wilkinson (170 pounds) claiming a title. Teammate Landon Gates (145) made the championship finals but dropped a 3-1 decision to Payson’s Riley Loveless.
Maple Mountain crowned two champions, which was the most of any team in the tournament. Besides LaMont, Johnny O’hearon won the 152-pound title, outlasting Demetrius Romero of Mountain View (Idaho) 6-4 in overtime.
In another great match, Weber’s Heston Woolsey pinned American Fork’s Cameron Hunsaker to win the 120-pound weight class. The Caveman junior led 3-0 in the third round, but the Warrior grappler caught Hunsaker in a bottom-leg cradle and secured the pin to end the match.
Another bout that went into extra time was at 285 pounds where Lehi’s Brackin Stringham defeated Orem’s Andrew Zollinger 2-1. Both of Stringham’s points came via stalling calls.
Davis had two wrestlers in the championship finals and one came away with a title as No. 2 seed Kade Evans got past the top seed Jaxon Cole of North Summit 1-0. However, Evans’ teammate Wyatt Koelling (195) wasn’t as fortunate as he dropped his match against Jacob Seely of Fruita Monument (Colorado), 10-6. This was a battle between two nationally ranked wrestlers who had perfect records in their weight classes.
The finals had a lot of action-packed matches and another one took place at 220 pounds where Tyler Stevenson of Desert Hills literally held off Herriman’s Wade French 10-9. French had built up a 10-3 lead but French turned Stevenson twice in the third round to trim the lead to one point and was nearly able to do it again, but time ran out.
Delta’s Trevor Poulsen knocked off the top seed from Washington with a third round fall to secure the 113-pound title.
In an anticipated match at 182 pounds, Post Falls’ Seth McCleod defeated Salem Hills’ Jacob Armstrong 6-2. This weight also featured three-time state champion Rylee Foy of Altamont, who was pinned by McCleod in the semifinals but came back to place third.
At 160 pounds, another out-of-state wrestler left with a title when North Central’s Izaec Quintanilla downed Wasatch’s Spencer Heywood 8-3.
Complete team and individual results can be found at www.trackwrestling.com.
Brian Preece is a freelance prep sports writer. Preece was the head wrestling coach at Provo High School from 1994-2006. In 2006, Preece was named the Utah Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association.