Broncos dominate in Price to win Dave Smith Memorial championship
by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School wrestling team put on an absolute clinic at the Dave Smith Memorial Duals this past weekend at Carbon High School in Price. The Broncos won all ten of their duals, scoring 702 points to win the event championship.
Six San Juan wrestlers went undefeated on the weekend and of their 132 total matches, they won 116. The Broncos collected an amazing 84 pins, almost twice as many as Orem, who was second in that department with 47.
Parker Snyder was the tournament’s Most Valuable Wrestler and the San Juan senior was 10-0 with eight of his wins by fall. He also got a win by 14-2 major decision and a 20-1 technical fall.
Miken Keith was 10-0 with nine wins by fall and one by 15-5 major decision. Logan Keith went 10-0 with seven wins by fall. JD Palmer was also 10-0 with seven wins by fall.
Chad Yellow was 10-0 with six pins. And Taylor Black was 10-0 for San Juan with four of his wins by fall. In addition to the six undefeated Broncos, four lost just one match on the weekend.
Taren Bayles and Jared Burke were both 9-1 at the tournament with seven pins. Bayles also won an exciting sudden victory over teammate Rigley LaGiglia who was wrestling on behalf of Dolores.
Deklan Helquist was 9-1 with six wins by fall. And El’Myron Begay was 9-1 with four wins by fall. Lennox Benn was the only Bronco to go 8-2 on the weekend with six of his wins by fall.
Staley Dandy was 7-3 on the weekend with four wins by fall. Thomas Hardin was 6-4, winning four of his matches by fall. And Hunter Keith won three matches for San Juan, all by fall.
Technically Miken Keith had the most pins in the least time for the tournament with nine in 22:10. But Parker Snyder had eight pins in just 5:29 and Jared Burke’s seven pins came in just 8:14.
Deklan Helquist tied for the second-fastest pin in the tournament 12 seconds. He also pinned an additional opponent in 15 seconds.
Miken Keith and Parker Snyder both registered 13-second pins. And Thomas Hardin pinned an opponent in 14 seconds.
San Juan is busy this week as they close out the pre-Christmas portion of their season. On Tuesday, December 12 they traveled to Aztec, NM for a dual with the Tigers.
This Friday and Saturday, December 15-16 the Broncos hit the road to compete in the annual Manti Holiday Classic.