Canyon View places 4th at state wrestling tournament; various Region 9 athletes earn medals

Written by Jeff Richards
February 18, 2019
Canyon View's Brady Lowry (top) wrestles Cedar's Michael Anker in the 152-pound championship match, Orem, Utah, Feb. 16, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Mat Lowry, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — Region 9 athletes made strong showings at the state 4A wrestling tournament held Friday and Saturday at Utah Valley University in Orem.

Canyon View’s Brady Lowry after defeating Cedar’s Michael Anker in the 152-pound championship match, Orem, Utah, Feb. 16, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Mat Lowry, St. George News / Cedar City News

Canyon View High was Region 9’s top team at state, scoring 143 total points to finish in fourth place overall for the second straight year. Payson won the 4A championship, with Uintah placing second and Bear River taking third. For Canyon View head coach Dallas Lowry, the tournament represented a special milestone as he watched his son Brady, a senior, finish his high school career on top by winning the state title at 152 pounds.

Lowry said it was a very emotional moment for him to watch his son pin Cedar senior Michael Anker in the championship match.

“That was the last match I’ll be able to coach him, you know, and I’ve been there at his side for so many years, 15 years of watching, which has been a joy for sure. … I’m so proud of him. I’m going to miss him,” Dallas Lowry said. “It was just overwhelming. I just started to cry when he finished his last match, I just broke down and got brought to my fellow coaches. I mean, that’s what’s so great about wrestling. All the coaches love each other and one of my fellow coaches, Bear River’s coach, came up and just held me up and I was just sobbing.”

Lowry said he believes his late wife, who died in a car accident nearly seven years ago when their son was 11, was also watching the match from above and cheering her son on.

Canyon View senior Brady Lowry and his father and coach, Dallas Lowry, hold their award plaques after being named the 4A wrestler of the year and coach of the year, respectively, Orem, Utah, Feb. 16, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Mat Lowry, St. George News / Cedar City News

“Our motto has always been to never quit,” Dallas Lowry recalled, saying he and Brady were at a junior wrestling meet in North Sevier in late March 2012, when he had to break the tragic news to his son right before his championship match. “When he found out that his mom was killed in a car accident, I was just ready to give up, But he just put his arm around me and said, ‘Mom wants to watch me wrestle.’”

Brady went out and won that match; he has rarely lost in the seven years since then.

Saturday’s win was Brady Lowry’s second individual state championship, having also won the state title at 132 pounds as a sophomore, after which he took runner-up in state at 145 pounds as a junior last year.

“Brady’s had an amazing season,” his father said. “He had 57 matches and never went to the third round. He pinned his opponent every match his senior year. That was a goal that he’d set: he wanted to be undefeated. He had one disqualification at divisionals, so he didn’t make that goal. I mean, he didn’t lose, but he beat himself. He had a great season and a great career, with 201 wins and 10 losses in high school, which is phenomenal.”

At the state tournament Saturday, Brady Lowry was named the 4A classification’s wrestler of the year, while his father was honored as the 4A coach of the year, an honor the elder Lowry called “humbling.”

Canyon View also had five other medalists at state, including senior Braydon Cavalieri, who battled Payson’s Tyson Carter to a virtual deadlock in the 170-pound championship match, which lasted three full rounds.

Lowry said Cavalieri fell shy of the state title by just two seconds, as Carter gained one point near the end of the third round to break a tie and take a 7-6 lead. Cavalieri then nearly achieved a takedown, only to fall short as time ran out, Lowry said.

“He cut (let go of) the guy with 11 seconds left,” he said. “He cut him and it’s 7-6 and he almost took him down. If he would’ve had one or two more seconds, he would have been the state champion.”

Lowry had high praise for Cavalieri, who is one of three straight-A students on the Falcons’ squad, the other two being Chris Ball and McCray Webster.

Canyon View’s Gavin Carter (right) grapples with Salem Hills senior Merrell Morley in the 182-pound championship match, Orem, Utah, Feb. 16, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Mat Lowry, St. George News / Cedar City News

“This is a 4.0 athlete that never misses a practice,” Lowry said of Cavalieri. “He never has a bad word to say about anybody. He’s just a straight up great kid. He’s in student government and is just constantly helping people. Braydon Cavalieri is one of my heroes.”

Also finishing second in state for the Falcons was junior Gavin Carter, who made it to the finals of the 182-pound bracket, despite being a No. 5 seed. Gavin Carter beat three higher-seeded opponents in succession, all by pin, only to lose by decision in the finals to Salem Hills senior Merrell Morley, the No. 1 seed from the other half of the bracket.

“He just wrestled out of his head,” Lowry said with a laugh as he talked about Gavin Carter’s performance at state. “He beat the No. 1 seed and then he beat the No. 2 seed, and he just beat kids he shouldn’t beat and made it to the finals and took second place.”

Canyon View also had three other medalists among the group of 13 wrestlers that qualified for state, namely junior Cole Lake, who took sixth at 132 pounds; senior Ryan Ball, who placed fourth at 160 pounds; and senior Riley Robertson, who took fourth at 285 pounds. See full listing of all Region 9 state finalists below, courtesy of trackwrestling.com.

Hurricane, which finished seventh overall out of 27 4A teams at the tournament, had six state medalists, including senior Caleb Armstrong, who finished second in the highly competitive 132-pound category. Armstrong was the defending state champion at that weight but was beaten this year by Uintah senior Gavin Ayotte in the finals by a 4-2 decision.

Cedar, which placed ninth overall as a team in the tournament, placed four state medalists, led by senior Nathan Ellis, who capped off a 37-3 season by defeating Payson senior McCoy Cook by a 6-2 decision in the 220-pound championship match. Also making it to the finals for Cedar was Anker, a senior, who lost to Brady Lowry at 152 pounds.

Ryker Boyce of Desert Hills stands atop the medals podium after winning the 138-pound championship match, Orem, Utah, Feb. 16, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Denene Torgenson, St. George News

Desert Hills junior Ryker Boyce also won an individual state title, beating Ridgeline senior Chance Parker by a 9-5 decision in the finals match of the 138-pound weight category.

“I won state my freshman year at 106 pounds, and I worked very hard this year to get my second state title after an upsetting sophomore year,” said Boyce, who finished his season with a 41-5 record.

Besides Boyce, Desert Hills had three other state medalists and finished eighth as a team. Also from Region 9, Snow Canyon had two state medalists and Dixie had one. See list below for results of each medal match involving Region 9 athletes.

Dallas Lowry said the youth wrestling program in Iron County has been instrumental in building more competitive high school teams over the past several years, not just at Canyon View but at Cedar and Parowan high schools as well. Registrations for wrestlers from preschool age through eighth grade for the upcoming season are Tuesday and Wednesday at the CVHS wrestling room. For more information, call Dallas Lowry at 435-531-1606.

4A state wrestling tournament top 10 team finishers, with scores

  1. Payson 238.5
  2. Uintah 222.5
  3. Bear River 153
  4. Canyon View 143
  5. Mountain Crest 118.5
  6. Salem Hills 99
  7. Hurricane 91
  8. Desert Hills 89.5
  9. Cedar 88
  10. Mountain View 79.5

Selected state 4A wrestling tournament medal match results (Region 9 athletes in bold)

106 pounds

  • 3rd place Raiden Harrison (Uintah) 32-10, freshman, over 4th place Austyn Ennis (Cedar) 40-7, freshman (fall, 2:51).
  • 5th place River Smith (Bear River) 29-14, freshman, over 6th place Isaac Blair (Hurricane) 30-12, junior (fall, 3:37).

120 pounds

  • 3rd place Layne Shepherd (Spanish Fork) 47-8, sophomore, over 4th place Jared Armstrong (Hurricane) 45-12, senior (fall, 5:59).

126 pounds

  • 5th place Tristyn Dennett (Hurricane) 32-19, freshman, over 6th place Jordan Hammond (Stansbury) 32-18, sophomore (decision, 5-3).

132 pounds

  • 1st place Gavin Ayotte (Uintah) 41-2, senior, over 2nd place Caleb Armstrong (Hurricane) 53-5, senior (decision, 4-2).
  • 5th place Devin Robins (Orem) 33-10, senior, over 6th place Cole Lake (Canyon View) 46-18, junior (major decision, 11-1).

138 pounds

  • 1st place Ryker Boyce (Desert Hills) 41-5, junior, over 2nd place Chance Parker (Ridgeline) 52-9, senior (decision, 9-5).
  • 3rd place Joshua Armstrong (Hurricane) 51-7, sophomore, over 4th place August Harrison (Uintah) 37-10, junior (decision, 2-1).

145 pounds

  • 3rd place Brock Loveless (Payson) 39-12, senior, over 4th place Clayton Warr (Hurricane) 46-9, junior (major decision, 12-2).
  • 5th place Seth Burr (Mountain View) 43-12, senior, over 6th place Quade Jones (Desert Hills) 38-17, junior (decision, 3-2).

152 pounds

  • 1st place Brady Lowry (Canyon View) 58-1, senior, over 2nd place Michael Anker (Cedar) 39-10, senior (fall, 1:31).
  • 5th place Matt Brooks (Dixie) 43-9, senior, over 6th place Payton Jones (Green Canyon) 24-20, senior (fall, 1:53).

160 pounds

  • 3rd place Terrell Buttars (Sky View) 44-14, senior, over 4th place Ryan Ball (Canyon View) 52-6, senior (decision, 2-1).

170 pounds

  • 1st place Tyson Carter (Payson) 44-4, senior, over 2nd place Braydon Cavalieri (Canyon View) 51-6, senior (decision, 7-6).

182 pounds

  • 1st place Merrell Morley (Salem Hills) 53-5, senior, over 2nd place Gavin Carter (Canyon View) 36-9, junior, (major decision, 13-5).
  • 3rd place Gage Hall (Desert Hills) 31-6, junior, over 4th place Cade Hatch (Uintah) 30-15, senior (fall, 1:05).
  • 5th place Carson Hansen (Snow Canyon) 40-18, sophomore, over 6th place Radi Stafford (Mountain View) 22-10, sophomore (injury, 2:23).

195 pounds

  • 5th place Payton Murray (Cedar) 18-9, sophomore, over 6th place Elijah Stafford (Mountain View) 8-7, sophomore (fall, 3:51).

220 pounds

  • 1st place Nathan Ellis (Cedar) 37-3, senior, over 2nd place McCoy Cook (Payson) 41-9, senior (decision, 6-2).
  • 3rd place Hunter Larsen (Sky View) 51-5, junior, over 4th place Tuiits Kanosh (Snow Canyon) 35-10, senior (decision, 3-1).

285 pounds

  • 3rd place Enoka Fuailetolo (Desert Hills) 34-10, senior, over 4th place Riley Robertson (Canyon View) 41-17, senior (decision, 5-4).
  • 5th place Kioni Alvarez (Cedar) 40-11, senior, over 6th place Logan Fraser (Bear River) 39-21, junior (decision, 3-2).

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2019, 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 two 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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