Rick Gillespie • For The Spectrum & Daily News • Published: January 21. 2011 4:55AM
| CEDAR CITY - The Cedar High wrestling team battled its way to a 37-27 win over a determined Hurricane squad Thursday night at the CHS gym, handing the Tigers their first Region 9 loss of the season.
Cedar finished the season perfect in Region 9 action.
A 7-0 win by Larsan Cottam over Justin Post late in the 145-pound match secured the Reds' win as Hurricane fought to erase a 12-point deficit with two contests left in the dual.
"He (Post) is a good kid," Cottam said. "He's strong and he had a great shot, but when he would shoot he would get way too deep. I just had to wait for my opportunity to shoot on him."
Cedar used a bit of strategy to gain the upper hand by shuffling a few wrestlers into different weight classes after one of Hurricane's wrestlers didn't make weight and was forced to forfeit.
The change up put Cottam and Post together on the mat as Post moved from the 140-pound class to 145.
The seemingly slight weight difference proved to be the key as Cottam was able to keep Post at bay for three rounds and hold on for the win.
"When they bumped (Cody) Hone up we bumped two kids up so we had four kids up a weight and that hurt us," said Hurricane coach Mike Randall. "We knew they were a good team. We tried to make up some ground here tonight, we just couldn't make it up."
Cedar took an early 9-0 lead, winning the first three matches by a combined score of 17-6.
Brian Scott pinned Tanner Tavoian in the second round of their match to give the Tigers their first points of the night and close the gap to 9-6.
A pair of quick pins by Cedar's Dusty Hone and Kolby Lloyd, who each won by fall less than one minute into their respective matches, gave the Redmen a 27-15 lead and got the momentum swinging in Cedar's direction.
Hurricane took two of the next three matches as Dakota Olson and Jace Jackson each won by decision, bringing the score to 33-21 and giving the Tigers a chance to tie it up with pins in the final two contests.
But Cottam's shutout win put the Tiger's chances of a comeback on ice as Cedar celebrated the victory.
"I was impressed with all of them," said Cedar coach Chris Hone. "They've been sick and we've got a bunch of hurt kids, and they gutted it up. Hurricane's always got their boys ready and we changed a couple of matches to line other kids up and it made a difference."
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