By Gregg Chappell
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley Pirates traveled to Hurricane, Utah last week to participate in a multi-team wrestling tournament on Friday and Saturday. This year the tournament consisted of twelve teams with a total of approximately 250 wrestlers from Southern Utah, Nevada and Arizona.
Each weight bracket consisted of 14-20 wrestlers. The brackets were broken into two or three pods per weight classification. Each athlete wrestled every other member in his pod.
The first day went well into the evening and finished up after four rounds. Saturday morning wrestling began at 9:30 am and went into the afternoon before completion of three more rounds. At the conclusion of the seventh round, the top wrestlers in each pod were seeded into a championship bracket. A semi-final and championship round was then completed.
At the end of the day the Pirates had three wrestlers which medaled in the tournament. Shae Bryant, senior at 135 pounds won first place with eight victories and no losses. Parker Chappell, junior at 160 pounds finished in second place with a record of eight wins-one loss. Trevor Durham, junior at 152 pounds finished in third place with an overall record of seven wins and one loss. Zach Staley finished the tournament with four victories before withdrawing due to stress on a previously injured knee.
Several other pirates battled hard and were just edged out of the championship round. Erving Torres at 125 pounds, Jake Repp at 119 pounds and Brandon Reeves at 215 pounds came up one victory short of being able to compete in the medal rounds.
The Pirates now travel to Indian Springs for the next team dual competition today December 15 and will also travel to Las Vegas on Friday and Saturday to compete in the prestigious Holiday Classic.
