Canyon View High’s boys and girls wrestling teams each take 1st place at Iron Town Duels

Written by Jeff Richards
January 11, 2024
Wrestlers compete in the Iron Town Duels tournament in Cedar City, Utah, Jan. 6, 2024 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — Canyon View High School won both the varsity boys and girls divisions at the Iron Town Duels invitational wrestling tournament in Cedar City last weekend.

Wrestlers compete in the Iron Town Duels tournament in Cedar City, Utah, Jan. 6, 2024 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

The event attracted athletes from approximately one dozen schools from Southern Utah and Southern Nevada. 

Throughout the two-day boys varsity meet, each team went head-to-head against eight other teams. The Canyon View boys won all eight of their dual matches and accumulated 474 team points, while the runner-up Panguitch Bobcats, the defending 1A state champions, finished with 403 points. Hurricane came in a close third with 400 points, while Cedar took fourth with 383. 

Host Canyon View earned a 41-24 dual meet victory over Panguitch.

“(Panguitch) is tough but I’ll tell you what, our boys showed up and wrestled today,” said Canyon View head coach Dallas Lowry. 

“They’re wrestling at the top of their game,” Lowry said of the Falcons. “We’re peaking at the right time and we’re going to make a splash at divisionals and at state.”

The two wrestlers with the most wins at the meet were Snow Canyon’s Tag Gubler and Cedar’s Ian Po’uha, both of whom compete in the heavyweight (285 pounds) classification. Each went a perfect 8-0 for the weekend, with all eight wins coming by pin. Although they had not yet wrestled each other this season, they did face each other a few days later, when Cedar went to Snow Canyon for a dual meet on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Gubler defeated Po’uha in that match by a pin in the first round.

Additionally, there were four wrestlers who each posted seven wins at the Iron Town Duels tournament — Asher Suwyn and Tad Peart of Hurricane, Morgan Finicum of Milford and Justin Anderson of Cedar.

More than one dozen other wrestlers recorded five wins or more. To see complete Iron Town Duels meet results, matchups and scores on trackwrestling.com, click here.

Iron Town Duels, Jan. 5-6, 2024

Boys varsity team scores

  1. Canyon View, 474.
  2. Panguitch, 403.
  3. Huirricane, 400.
  4. Cedar, 383.
  5. Foothill (Nev.), 326.
  6. Snow Canyon, 316.
  7. Milford, 291.
  8. Lincoln (Nev.), 182.
  9. Independent, 149.
  10. Boulder City (Nev.), 87.

Girls

Meanwhile, on the other side of town on Saturday, Cedar High School hosted the Iron Town Girls tournament. Canyon View won in decisive fashion, accumulating 302.5 team points to runner-up Crimson Cliffs’ 155.5. Enterprise placed third with 130 points.

Canyon View girls wrestling team and coaches celebrate the Falcons’ first-place finish at the Iron Town Duels tournament in Cedar City, Utah, Jan. 6, 2024 | Photo courtesy of Heather Carter, St. George News / Cedar City News

Individual winners in the tournament’s respective weight categories were as follows: Alexa Marshall of Panguitch at 99-114 pounds, Quinci Smith of Crimson Cliffs at 100-114, Alexandra Ramirez of Enterprise at 110-121, Julia Kay of Canyon View at 114-125,  India Smith of Lincoln County, Nevada at 116-124, Marley Castaneda of Canyon View at 125-140, Jeanine Field of Snow Canyon at 128-145, Lauren Bowling of Foothill in Henderson, Nevada at 133-146, Nia Hagler of Snow Canyon at 134-150, Bree West of Crimson Cliffs at 151-159, Adriana Sierra of Canyon View at 167-184, EliAnna (Snail) Santos-Banks of Canyon View at 189-221 and  Jerri Togiai of Cedar at 222-254.

In addition to having four first-place finishers, Canyon View also had five girls place second, three take third and five place fourth in their respective categories. For complete meet results, click here.

Iron Town Duels, Jan. 6, 2024

Girls varsity team scores

  1. Canyon View, 302.5.
  2. Crimson Cliffs, 155.5.
  3. Enterprise, 130.
  4. Snow Canyon, 97.
  5. Foothill (Nev.), 93.5.
  6. Cedar, 91.
  7. Panguitch, 46.
  8. Lincoln (Nev.) 40.5.
  9. Kanab, 30.
  10. Boulder City (Nev.), 28.
  11. Hurricane, 20.
  12. Parowan, 9.

A number of elite wrestlers from around the state traveled to Orem on Tuesday to compete in the annual Ross Brunson All-Star Duals staged at Utah Valley University.

Southern Utah wrestlers who won their matches at the premier showcase event included the following:

  • Girls 120 pounds: Alex Ramirez of Enterprise defeated Jakailei Lujan of Uintah by fall 3:50.
  • Girls 115 pounds: Julia Kay of Canyon View defeated Eliza Zimmerman Hillcrest by a 9-2 decision.
  • Girls 145 pounds Lily Pomeroy of Pine View defeated Addyson Vidal of Jordan by an 8-2 decision.
  • Boys 157 pounds: Jacob Marshall of Panguitch defeated Brandon Ploehn of Stansbury in a 10-8 decision.
  • Boys 220 pounds: Kutlur Matheson of Beaver defeated Marc Richardson of Canyon View in a close 5-4 decision.

Other Southern Utah athletes who competed in the Brunson All-Star Duals included 150-pound Colton Barnes of Milford, who lost by a third-round pin to Brody Rhoades of Uintah, along with the following girls: Elizabeth Cox of Enterprise at 110 pounds, Lucy Harris of Desert Hills at 140 pounds, Ina Slivers of Enterprise at 235 pounds, Nia Hagler of Snow Canyon at 135 pounds and Meletilini Matakaiongo of Canyon View at 170 pounds.

Canyon View’s busy week continued Thursday night with both girls and boys teams competing at Richfield, after which the boys will be at North Sevier in Salina on Friday and Saturday while the Falcon girls head up to Herriman to take part in the Rockwell Rumble.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

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