Pleasant Grove’s Trevyn Gates won the 195-pound weight class at the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) Senior Nationals held in Virginia Beach this past weekend.

Gates decisioned Evan Wingrove from Georgia to win the title, 5-3. In total, Gates won five matches in the tournament including three by fall. One of those pins, he was trailing early against a grappler from Nevada, 4-1, before the Viking senior turned the tables to pin his opponent.

Incidentally, Gates placed second to Corner Canyon’s Leimana Fager in the 6A tournament. Fager placed second in the junior division after winning a USA Folkstyle title in Iowa last month.

The successes of Gates, Fager and Payson’s Landen Shurtleff, who has beaten both Fager and Gates in his career, showed just how loaded this weight class was in the Beehive State.

Westlake’s Brayden Robison (145 pounds) placed third in the senior division, losing in the semifinals. Spanish Fork’s Junior Wetzel placed eighth in the same weight class. Both were state champions in their respective classifications in February.

Gates’ teammate Bradlee Farrer placed fourth in the junior division at 160 pounds. Though he is just a junior in high school, Karson Shelley, a 3-time state champion for Spanish Fork, competed in the senior division and placed eighth at 120 pounds.

Another big-time performance was given by Salem Hills wrestler Jaxson Young, who placed third in 5A state at 215 pounds, but competed at 195 pounds for this event and placed second in the freshman division.

Wasatch’s Wyatt Hansen, a freshman who placed second at state in 5A, placed fifth in the freshman division at 165 pounds, while Westlake’s Kaizen Detoles, a state placer in 6A, placed seventh in the sophomore division competing at 152 pounds.

Other top performances featuring Utah wrestlers included a second-place finish in the sophomore division by Grand County’s Austin Paris (132 pounds), a two-time 2A champion who also won the Rockwell Rumble at 138 pounds.

Corner Canyon’s Clarion Fager was the only Utah female wrestler to medal as she placed seventh at 165 pounds. Because of numbers, there weren’t individual tournaments based on grade in school, but all girl wrestlers grades 9-12 competed together.

The NHSCA Nationals were created in 1989 and is considered the toughest post high-school season tournament in folkstyle wrestling.

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