Thornton Wins Two Tournaments for Panthers

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Pahrangat Valley?s Reece Thornton. He has won two tournaments for the Panthers at 195 pounds. The team competes this weekend in the Desert Storm Classic in St. George, Utah.

At the Moapa Tri-Duals on Dec. 7, Reece Thornton (195) and Jon Stewart (220) won their matches. Thornton pinned Ryan McMurray, and Stewart won by forfeit.

The Panthers had to forfeit most of the matches in the middle weights, 120- 160 pounds, as they don?t have any wrestlers in those weight classes.

At the Parowan High Memorial tournament in Parowan, Utah, on Dec. 8-9, the Panthers and Lincoln County were the only two out-of-state teams among nine Utah teams.

Again, Thornton won his weight class against some good competition. He had a bye his first round. Then Austin Judd of Parowan, decisioned 10-7 in the semifinals, pinned Payton Murray of Cedar City in 45 seconds in the championship match.

Salvador Heredia (113) won his first match over Josh Mahoney of Canyon View, but lost in the semifinals to Karson Wunderlich of Milford and moved to the consolation round. There he pinned Korbin Allen of Panguitch, but then lost to Trexton Bailey of Beaver by an 8-7 decision to take fourth place.

Hagen Harris (106) lost his first match, won his second match by a 7-2 decision, but next lost by pin to Zander Larson of Canyon View and did not place.

At 182 pounds, Chris Thornton lost by pin to Ben Rose of Bryce Valley. In the consolation, he pinned Joe Pulica of Canyon View and decisioned Charles Dorris of Canyon View, but lost the third-place match to Ben Rose, the same wrestler he lost to in the first round.

Jonathan Dillingham (170) loste one match, pinned Isaac Potter of Canyon View in 27 seconds in the next match, and a pin over Joshua Holman of Panguitch to move to the third-place match, where he lost to Gene Salinas of Parowan.

John Stewart (285) also took fourth place with a first round loss to Kyler Bowen of Beaver, but won over Hunter Rushton of Panguitch and Josh Hasemeyer of Parowan, before losing to Brandon Jones of Bryce Valley.

Tate Leavitt (220) took a fifth-place finish. He lost first to Brian Williamson of Milford, pinned Angus Balloch of Parowan, lost to Lelo Garcia of Beaver and Kayden Jensen of Parowan.

This week, the Painter wrestlers are participating in the large Desert Storm tournament at Dixie High School in St. George, Utah.