San Juan finishes pre-Christmas portion of wrestling schedule

by Art Adair
Contributing Writer
The San Juan High School boys wrestling team had a dual on December 17 with Monument Valley, AZ. The Broncos came away with the home dual win, 60 to 17.
The Mustangs of Monument Valley gave up six matches by forfeit.
At 113 pounds Jack Kartchner battled hard but fell 8-1. At 138, Staley Dandy fell 19-2. Miken Keith at 144 got the Broncos in the win column with a second period fall.
Cameron Adair at 150 pounds followed that up with a quick 50 second fall. The Mustangs got a tech fall at 157 over Rigley LaGiglia and a major decision over Taren Bayles.
JD Palmer at 175 and Thomas Harden at 190 both earned falls for the Broncos. In exhibition matches, Bronco wrestlers were 4-0 with falls by Chance Laws, Hunter Keith, Kai Fox, and Pierce Holliday.
In the final match of the evening, Santa Claus took on the Grinch to save Christmas. The Grinch took an early 7-0 lead.
Santa Claus chose the bottom position to start off the second giving up four near fall points to the Grinch before getting an escape and an exciting lateral drop takedown to get the fall.
The grapplers competed at the Manti Holiday classic over the weekend.
In the varsity tournament, San Juan grapplers battled some very tough competition, giving up 18 points to forfeits. Their first dual was against a tough Union squad that eventually ended up second in the tournament.
The Broncos lost 60-18 with Chad Yellow receiving a forfeit. The only wins were by Cameron Adair and El’Myron Begay.
In the next dual against North Sanpete, Rigley LaGiglia, and JD Palmer won their matchups by fall, and Miken Keith won by major decision 18-8.
In their best matchup of the day, the Broncos fell to Juab 40-30, with Chad Yellow, Miken Keith, Cameron Adair, Rigley LaGiglia, and JD Palmer earning wins by fall.
Against Maple Mountain, winning matches for the Broncos by fall were Liam Lacy, Chad Yellow, Grady Lacy, Miken Keith, and JD Palmer.
On the second day of the tournament, the Broncos got back in the win column, beating Piute 60-12. Liam Lacy, Chad Yellow, Grady Lacy, Cameron Adair, Taren Bayles, and JD Palmer all won by fall.
Against a combined squad from Dolores, CO and Ben Lomond, Liam Lacy, Chad Yellow, Grady Lacy, and Cameron Adair won by fall.
The Broncos then faced familiar foe Grand County and fell 38-36, with Chad Yellow and Trai Bass earning falls.
San Juan ended the tournament with a win over the Wayne Badgers. Liam Lacy, Chad Yellow, Grady Lacy, Miken Keith, Cameron Adair, Taren Bayles, El’Myron Begay, Trai Bass, and Cian Mark earned wins by fall and JD Palmer earned a tech fall.
For the tournament, Chad Yellow, Cameron Adair and JD Palmer went 7-1, Miken Keith was 6-2, and Liam Lacy, Taren Bayles, Rigley LaGiglia and Grady Lacy were 4-4.
El’ Myron Begay and Trai Bass won three matches, while Jack Kartchner and Kai Fox won two and Cian Mark wn one varsity match.
In the JV tournament, Hunter Keith placed first going 4-0. Finishing second were Tyus Spotted Elk (3-1) and Stan Jones, with two wins by fall. Cian Mark and Gavin Butler placed third. Krush Wallis went 1-0 before being injued.
The Broncos are off for the holiday season and resume action at the 2A Duals on January 3-4.
There will be some wrestling over the Christmas Break as wrestlers across the state will converge in Nephi on December 28 for one of the premier tournaments in the state – the Beehive 25 Invitational.
Sixteen wrestlers in each weight will wrestle for the title of Beehive 25 Champion. The tournament is by invitation only and three San Juan wrestlers will participate: Chad Yellow, Grady Lacy, and JD Palmer.