BEAR RIVER HIGH - By Cari Doutre, Headliner Publisher, December 12, 2022
Yet another year and another loss for Box Elder High’s boys’ wrestling team at the hands of their cross-county rivals, Bear River High. When the Bears traveled to Brigham City on December 8, they left behind a massacre on the wrestling mat defeating the Bees 48-23.
Bringing home an individual win for the Bears that night include:
120 – Daxton Bingham (Fall 2:30)
132 – Max Miller (Decision 5-0)
138 – Chet Kunzler (Fall 2:37)
150 – Braegger Richards (Fall 3:28)
165 – Vincent Fertig (Fall 5:07)
175 – Skyler Yeates (Decision 6-5)
190 – Owen Hess (Fall 2:35)
215 – Kwade Kosof (Fall 0:57)
285 – Max Anderson (Fall 5:38)
Story continues below...
Catch the Bears’ exciting win over Box Elder, courtesy of Bear River Live, on the links below.
The next day the varsity team headed down to Nephi for the Juab Winter Classic on December 9-10. In an uncommon format for high school wrestling tournaments, the first two team duals are considered “pool play” and determine which bracket they move onto to compete in for the rest of the tournament.
Bear River received a bye for their first team dual then defeated Millard High’s Team B, 48-27, placing the Bears in the tournament’s top bracket – Gold.
From there it got a little rough for the Bears.
Starting off in the gold bracket, Bear River lost their first two team duals to Richfield High (40-36) and Juab High (57-11). A win over Snow Canyon High (48-23) in the third round wasn’t enough to turn things around for the Bears as they fell to Uintah High in the fourth round (56-21) then narrowly defeated Fremont High (42-41).
One more loss to Millard High (49-21) and a forfeited win over Blackfoot High, sealed Bear River’s fate in the gold bracket as they finished 5th overall in the 8-team bracket.
Making up for the forfeited match they missed out on, Bear River went against Juab High’s Team B in an “extra” match for mat time defeating the Wasps, 48-30.
Individually for the Bears, senior Max Miller (132) and sophomore Daxton Bingham (120) fared well as both wrestlers finished the tournament with an overall record of 7-1.
Up next for the Bear River High boys’ wrestling team are two more matches on the road starting with Morgan High on Thursday, December 15. The Bears will then take on the Weber Duals December 16-17.
Photos by Shari and Tymer Yeates
Keaton Smith
