Prep wrestling: Dixie rides 4 straight pins to win over SC

Tanner Nelson for Snow Canyon and Darius Hildebrandt for Dixie at 195, Dixie vs. Snow Canyon, Wrestling, St. George, Utah, Jan. 26, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Dixie battled through and overcame two forfeits and four pins to beat Snow Canyon 42-36 in the Flyers’ second win in a row Thursday night in Region 9 wrestling action at DHS.

The match came down to the final two bouts, with Dixie pulling out the two decisions and ultimately the team win.

Dixie head coach Jarad Carson was excited to get the win in such a tight battle.

“I’m super happy for my kids, they wrestled their hearts out,” he said. “Snow Canyon is a scrappy team. They’re tough. They are tough from top to bottom, and we had to score some big wins to pull out the victory on them.”

Caleb Leavitt for Snow Canyon and Devon Paxton for Dixie at 106, Dixie vs. Snow Canyon, Wrestling, St. George, Utah, Jan. 26, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

The wrestling match started at the 195-pound weight class and it started out with Snow Canyon winning six of the first eight bouts by pin or forfeit. The Warriors led 36-9 going into the 138-pound weight class.

“I wasn’t panicked,” Carson said. “I knew we were coming to the heart of our lineup, starting off there with Chandler Welch. I knew that we were going to score some points during that part. Obviously, our concern was what kind of points we were going to score. I told the kids not to panic either. I knew we were in it, but we had to score points, and get finishes to pins, and not get pinned as well.”

Dixie won the next five bouts by four pins and a forfeit to give the Flyers their first lead at 39-36 going into the last bout. Jason Longmore (170) was the wrestler that put Dixie ahead with a pin.

“We’ve just come a long way. We’ve worked really hard and it just paid off,” Longmore said. “A couple of us knew we were going to have to come out with some big wins to win the dual. We were just going to go out there and go as hard as we could, and it worked out for us.”

Tanner Nelson for Snow Canyon and Darius Hildebrandt for Dixie at 195, Dixie vs. Snow Canyon, Wrestling, St. George, Utah, Jan. 26, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

The final bout was between two seniors wrestling in their last dual meet of their high school careers for a win: SC’s Chris Stoddard and Dixie’s Cutler Thomas. Snow Canyon head coach Nick Lang had nothing bad to say about either wrestler.

“We started out really well; We had a big lead, and it just was not enough. They were very impressive,” he said. “I thought it was fun on senior night, how it ended up with an exciting match. Cutler Thomas is a senior, and he picked up a good win against one of our very good wrestlers, Chris Stoddard, who is also a senior. It came down to the very end. Cutler wrestled a very good match.”

Thomas ultimately won by a 9-3 decision to seal the Dixie victory.

“I was getting kind of nervous, because I knew the match was on me,” Thomas said. “I had to win. I’ve wrestled that kid before, and I’ve beat him pretty good, so I was pretty sure we were going to come away with a win. Everyone gave it their all, especially when we came through and got those six wins in a row at the end.”

Both teams will have one last tournament in Enterprise Friday and Saturday before the regional/divisional tournament next weekend. The regional/divisional tournament will be with all teams from Region 9 and Region 12. From there, the top eight wrestlers in each weight class will move forward to the state tournament.

The Divisional Meet is at Juab High School in Nephi, while state is at Utah Valley University’s UCCU Center.

On Wednesday, Desert Hills officially clinched the Region 9 wrestling title with a win at home over Pine View. The Thunder rolled through the region schedule unbeaten in 2017 and hope to send several wrestlers deep into the state tournament in Orem, including defending state champion Liam Williams and Brady Jones, who placed second last season.

The Desert Hills Thunder clinched the region crown Wednesday night. | Photo courtesy @DhillsAthletics

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Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

 

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