| 6:33 AM, Feb. 12, 2012 | St. George - Most people know high school wrestling in the state of Utah know when Delta walks into a gymnasium for a meet, they bring a rich tradition (29 state championships, 162 state-champion wrestlers), but that New York Yankee-like history doesn't mean 3A teams lie down and grant forfeits to the Rabbits.
The Delta team operates with a high standard of expectations. On Saturday at Desert Hills, after the last whistle sounded, the Rabbits were the 3A South Division Regional tournament team champions, but they weren't chest bumping about it. When coach Josh Wright was asked to share his thoughts about his team's performance, he wasn't filled with joy considering the six second-place finishes.
"The kids individually can enjoy the success they had, come Monday morning at 6:45 a.m., we're going at it and we're not going to talk about what we did last week," said Wright.
"We're not going to change anything. Our goal is to win the state championship as a team. We're going to go home, continue what we do, try to get better. Most of it is working with the kids' minds getting them ready for state. Wrestling is a mental sport and as coaches, we are psychologists."
The championship rounds started with Delta's Kohl Tolbert and Hurricane's Josh Pettus in a 106-pound bout. Tolbert had a 2-1 lead and the match almost expired, but Pettus executed a reversal with only four seconds remaining, scored two points, and won the match 3-2.
"He was driving me out of bounds and I took a look at the clock, there was 11 seconds," Pettus said. "I went for it, he shrugged me and that's when I hit, I spun behind him and scored, surprising, it was good."
Dusty Hone of Cedar scored a 6-1 decision next in the 113-pound division, and then Spanish Fork's Branson Ashworth nailed down a 7-1 decision at 120 pounds. The intense-mannered sophomore continued his tear this season, increasing his record to 43-1.
"I came down looking to get one step closer to my goal, to be state champ," said Ashworth. "I wanted to take it to people and wrestle my match."
Ashworth walks around in a trance-like focus long before his matches begin.
"I get teased a lot for that," Ashworth said. "I tend to warm up an hour and a half, two hours before my matches. I get my mind warmed up, get myself pumped up and ready to go."
Payson's Mitch Brown didn't make things easier for Delta. He scored the night's first pin in the second round, raising his record to 51-2. The three-time champion, who's already signed with the Air Force Academy on a wrestling scholarship, is an all-business type personality on the mats and off.
"I went into it confident, knew I had to do my stuff, and win," Brown said about his championship round. "I was confident, and just wrestled my match."
In a funny irony, Brown's father was a two-time state champion - at Delta.
The best Region 9 team performance came from Cedar. Brothers Mason (170) and Cameron (195) Williamson each scored late-round pins in dramatic fashion to put Cedar over the top in scoring among local teams.
Cedar coach Chris Hone pointed to maturation and progression.
"The Williamson boys, they've been working their butts off all season long," Hone said. "It's been a two-, three-year process, their development. This was one of the payoffs. They're ready to wrestle. I'm proud of them, real proud of them."
Desert Hills' Kalob Stevenson capped the night with his third-round pin in the 285-pound division, giving the host team a highlight win.
"I went out there and did what my coaches told me to do," said Stevenson. "I just wanted to win my division. I didn't care how I got it done, just as long as I got it done."
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