Billy Cox and his daughter Hailey Corona have taken an incredible journey together in the sport of wrestling.

Corona was one of the first female wrestlers in Utah history and when she was beating the boys in weekend tournaments across the state, she got a lot of grief as did her parents. But she stuck with it, earned plenty of acclaim at the national and international level when she got to compete just against females, and now like her father Billy, is fast becoming one of the top coaches in our state.

And father Billy is very proud of his daughter Hailey.

“When you see your daughter being a leader of young people, you just try to enjoy the feeling knowing that they are doing something that you also love,” said Cox. “I just sit back in awe of what she’s doing and what she has done.”

Corona didn’t compete when girls wrestling was a sanctioned sport by the Utah High School Activities Association, but she managed to qualify for state as a female wrestler. After a year in college, Corona returned to Utah and became an assistant coach to her father at Maple Mountain when the Golden Eagles won the inaugural 1-A-3A, 5A girls state tournament.

Then Cox would move to Nephi to start Juab’s wrestling program and Corona would take over at Maple Mountain leading Maple Mountain to a second straight title. But as fate would have it, Corona would move on, and like her father, start a program from scratch at Wasatch High School.

Corona feels fortunate to be coaching at Wasatch where the community has welcomed her and wants to be a girls wrestling powerhouse as well as a boys wrestling powerhouse.

“I’ve never seen such great support from the parents to the administration to the boys coaches. The support is unmatched. They are making sure our girls have the gear and money to travel and it’s been super, super nice,” Corona said.

For Cox, he sees competing against his daughter’s team as an important step in the growth of girls wrestling in Utah.

“I think from the historic standpoint, it’s pretty significant in the (female wrestling) community,” Cox said of the dual meet between the two schools.

The number of female participants in wrestling has truly exploded and now in its third year as a sanctioned sport by the Utah High School Athletic Association, there are over 1,200 girl wrestlers competing in the Beehive State. The two programs truly represent the huge influx of girl wrestlers in Utah. Juab had zero girls wrestling before Cox’s arrival for the 2021-22 season and Wasatch didn’t have any female wrestlers prior to this season but now has close to 30 grapplers in its program.

When the dust settled in this battle between the Wasps, Dad’s team Juab prevailed 51-27.

Juab won the opening match as Aspen Nielson (100 pounds) won by pin. But Wasatch tied the match up with a pin of their own by Maisey Blaser at 105 pounds.

The two teams went back and forth with Juab’s Kya Pay (110) and Wasatch’s Finely Larsen (115) earning falls. But with the score tied 12-12 Juab took control of the dual winning five of the next six matches as Grace Holman (120), Graycee Wilkinson (125), Addison Johnson (135), Hadlei Weaver (140), and Kyra Defino won their matches by pin, or in Defino’s case, by forfeit.

Wasatch did wins by Laynee Bonner (130), Kate Bird (155) and Hailey Longnecker (170) before Juab won the last two bouts of the varsity dual with Macee Ercanbrack (190) and Kilie Milberger (235) to push the final score to 51-27 in Juab’s favor.

“I thought our girls wrestled well,” said Corona. “Juab is a really tough team.”

Corona said it was fun to compete against Juab coached by her father.

“It was awesome,” Corona said. “I would have really loved to beat my Dad’s team but they are a bit more experienced. I don’t think the score was indicative of how we wrestled.”

Wrestling is truly a family affair for the Corona and Cox families.

Billy Cox was a state champion wrestler from Nevada. Cox’s oldest son Tanner was a 3-time state champion for Maple Mountain while his youngest son Cooper was a 3-time state place winner. And interesting enough, Corona’s husband Orlando was a youth and high school wrestler in the Maple Mountain program, along with an all-state baseball player. And he has been at his wife’s side as an assistant coach.

“Orlando is awesome. The girls love him,” said Hailey Corona. “I think it’s great to have a male role model that holds them accountable.”

Westlake earns National Ranking: In the USA Wrestling girls team rankings, Westlake checked in at No. 3 behind Wyoming Seminary (Pennsylvania) and Toppenish (Washington).

Three Thunder wrestlers were also ranked with Lizzie Raleigh earning a No. 3 ranking at 144 pounds, Celeste Detoles at No. 18 at 127 pounds and Ashley Cannon at No. 26 at 117 pounds.

Boys Wrestling: Juab and Wasatch also tangled in boys wrestling with Juab earning a 39-28 victory.

Juab won the first match as Braxten Blackett (106) earned a major decision victory 15-7 over Wasatch’ Gage Anderson.

Wasatch then won the next three matches by pin to go ahead 18-4. Winning Wasatch wrestlers were Farrell Burman (113), Daxton Bonner (120) and Benjamin Kohler (126).

Juab’s Cooper Blackett won by fall over Miles Kohler at 132 pounds but at 138 pounds Wasatch’s Ryder Robinson earned a 12-2 major decision victory and Wasatch led 22-10.

But then Juab took over the dual winning five of the next six bouts, all by pin. Dax Johnson (144), Chase Ingram (150), Dakota Lynn (157), Logan Holdaway (190) and Ty Blackburn (285) all secured the fall. There were two double forfeits at 165 and and 175 pounds and Wasatch’s Hunter Homer won by pin at 215 pounds to trim Juab’s lead to 33-28 before Blackburn’s pin clinched the dual meet win for the Juab Wasps.

In other dual meets last week, American Fork clubbed Copper Hills 51-24 as Peyton Hansen (285), Hanks Jacobsen (113), Tyler Garrett (120), Teagan Wilkerson (126), Micah Murdoch (132), Tege Kelley (138), Thomas Bartholomew (150), Desmond Fieeiki (157), and Ashton Westcott (165) picked up victories for the Cavemen.

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