Pahranagat Valley wrestlers participated in the 2A Southern Division duals Jan. 24 in Tonopah. Other teams involved were Lincoln County, Tonopah, White Pine, and West Wendover.
These duals were used to seed the wrestlers for the Southern Regional tournament this weekend at Indian Springs High School.
Panther coach Brad Loveday said Hagen Harris (106), Jesse Jones (145), and Jon Michael Stewart (285) were seeded first in their weight class for regionals by virtue of winning all four of their duals matches.
Davin Minick (138) and Jacob Griffin (170) were 2-2 in their matches and each received the No. 3 seed.
In the 220-pound class, there was a three-way tie for first place, each wrestler going 3-1, and after going through the various tie-breaker rules, Loveday said it had to be decided by a coin flip. After three tries, Pahrangat’s Tayt Leavitt was given the No. 3 seed.
However, Loveday said, that didn’t accurately describe the situation. Leavitt actually won by fall in his match with defending 2A state champion Kevin Pope (Tonopah) but lost to Kegan Hexem (White Pine), who in turn had lost to Pope, creating the three-way tie.
“We had to flip the coin three times,” he said. “First time every one called heads and it was heads. The second time everyone called tails and it was tails. The third time, Leavitt came out on the short end, Pope called tails while Leavitt and Hexem called heads, and the flip came out tails. Then it reverted back to the head-to-head match between Pope and Hexem, and since Pope had beaten Hexem, he got the No. 1, Hexem the No. 2, and Leavitt No. 3.”
Stewart (285) was 4-0 at the duals and, along the way, had a nice 4-1 decision over Jonathan Rodriguez (West Wendover), the defending state champion.
Heading to the regional tournament, Loveday said, “The boys are starting to round into shape, doing things the right way at this point in the season, rolling along doing really, really well.”
The top four in each class at regionals advance to the state tournament Feb. 8-9 in Winnemucca.
