Lehi Sports
Three Falcons medal at state wrestling
The Skyridge wrestling team had one boy and two girls place in the top four at the 6A State wrestling meets on Feb. 15-16 atUtah Valley University’s UCCU Center.
In the team competitions, the Falcon boys finished 21st with 25.5 points and the girls tied for 17th place with 41.0 points. Layton won the boys title and Westlake earned first place in the girls tournament, both of them by substantial margins.
Silver medalist Madison Sherman (34-4) was the top finisher for Skyridge with 24.0 team points. The freshman took Syracuse’s Daeja Sundquist (32-6) all the way to the third period before being pinned in the girls 130 bracket final.
“Madison outwrestled her opponent all match coming off a week-long flu battle,” said Coach Lyle Mangum. “She had her opponent pinned in the first but did not get the call and was leading 14-3 in the third when she was rolled through and pinned off a combination.”
In the girls 120 weight class, junior Nadia Thomas (33-6) lost in her quarterfinal but then worked her way back through three rounds in consolation to reach the third-place match. She claimed the bronze medal with a 10-4 decision over Riverton’s Myiah Giampapa (27-14) and earned 17.0 points.
“These two will both return to lead a strong girls team next year,” the coach said.
For the boys, senior Billy Ferguson (39-8) came in fourth in the 157 bracket with 16.0 team points, suffering a narrow loss in his placement match to Preston Stevens (17-4) of Mountain Ridge by 8-6 decision.
Here are the results for the other Falcons who qualified to compete at the state meet:
• At 120, senior Easton Josie (21-18) was eliminated after two rounds.
• At 126, sophomore Nate Terrazas (28-13) got 1.0 point for a win by decision in the consolation round before bowing out.
• At 138, senior Tyler Rex (28-13) scored 3.0 points with a win by fall in the consolation round before his second defeat.
• At 138, senior Ryan Reay (24-11) also scored a pin in a consolation bout but lost the next one to exit the event.
• At 150, senior Rhett Collins (25-15) was pinned twice to finish his appearance.
• At 175, junior Chance Peterson (22-13) added 2.5 points with a technical-fall victory in consolation before he was pinned in his next match.
• At 285, senior Ilaiasi Tukuafu (20-12) lost both his bouts.
• In the girls competition, freshman Makayla Price at 120 and sophomore Kaitlyn Meyer at 170 both bowed out after successive pins.
“We had several wrestlers be one match from placing,” Mangum said. “Nate Terrazas, Ryan Reay and Chance Petersen all wrestled well and two of them will also return next season.”
