Uintah won its sixth straight team title with four of them while being in the 4A classification and two as a 5A school.

“This is a special group of kids,” Timpanogos head coach Alex Nicholes said.

He knew his team competed well but at this time Uintah is too big of a juggernaut to overcome.

“It’s been a special season,” Nicholes added. “These kids love each other and they work super hard regardless of the outcome.”

The Timberwolves put three into the finals and two of them became state champions. Fisher Jolley (175 pounds) repeated as a state champ as he pinned Crimson Cliffs’ Keaton Jolley in the first round. Jolley was totally dominant winning three of his matches by pin and his semifinal bout by technical fall.

Two weights before Jolley at 157 pounds, Zack McCann defeated Crimson Cliff’s Jacob Broadhead by a 22-8 major decision. McCann had a close call in the semifinals winning in sudden victory 9-6 after getting a takedown in the first overtime session. McCann was looking good for victory in regulation but got a second stalling call against him which tied up the match. But the Timberwolf junior regrouped and got the winning takedown to edge Hurricane’s Brice Hawkins.

At 106 pounds, Noah Ahn lost by major decision to Uintah’s Gavin DeCol, 10-1. Before that Ahn scored big team points for the Timberwolves with a pin and two wins by technical fall.

Mountain View finished third behind Ridgeline but had one individual champ in Hyrum Stafford (190) who battled a knee injury in the later stages of the season. Stafford, a junior, was a silver medalist last season, but he got the job done in 2026 with a 8-4 win over Uintah’s Lukas Turner. Stafford’s closest bout actually came in the semifinals when he had to go to the ultimate tiebreaker to beat Kaleb Midzinski of Timpanogos 7-3. Tied 3-3 in regulation, no one scored in sudden victory. Stafford rode out Midzinski and then when he was on bottom escaped and took down his Timberwolf foe.

Stafford’s Bruin teammate Brigham Cookson (150) placed second as he lost 1-0 to Mountain Crest’s Mack Rutledge whose second round escape stood up.

Provo finished in 24th and Orem tied for 25th in the 28-team 5A field.

4A Boys Notes: Green Canyon’s Sam Tanner (285) was the only boys prep wrestler to finish his season undefeated at 48-0. Tanner pinned Uintah’s Caden Young in the first round. Tanner had a wild semifinal match with Timpanogos’ Jesse King and trailed 6-2 after the first round before coming back to win 11-6. Pine View’s Caleb Patton also came into this weight class undefeated, but the returning state champ was topped by Young 3-1 in the semifinals.

4A Girls Notes: Mountain View’s 100-pound state champ Ximena Melendez took an unlikely path to the top. Because she’s fluent in Spanish, last season she came with a friend who wanted to wrestle to be an interpreter. She was then challenged by Bruin head coach Maren Stafford to join the team and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I’m very glad I wrestled,” said Melendez, who pinned Mountain Crest’s Sydney Reisner in the second round. “I think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

The joy of winning a state title is much the same regardless of experience.

“It’s a shocker, I’m surprised and I’m just really happy,” the Bruin senior said.

For Orem’s Sophia Johnson (130), her journey to the top of the podium came after two straight runner-up finishes. Johnson always represented Orem, her school really didn’t have a wrestling program so she worked out with Mountain View. But this year Johnson had a team of her own led by former Provo High wrestler Diego Pena. Johnson pinned Green Canyon’s Addison Hill to claim gold.

“It feels amazing,” Johnson said of being a state champion. “I’ve been working hard for this for three years. To see all that hard work pay off is the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Mountain View, which placed sixth as a team, had one more state champion when Sophie Stoddard took home the gold at 155 pounds. The Bruin senior secured a third period pin over Mountain Crest’s Maggi Budge. Stoddard had a dominating tournament winning three of her bouts by pin and another by major decision.

Jasmine Howard (145) also had a good tournament and placed second for Mountain View.

As for other Utah County teams, thanks to Johnson’s title run Orem finished 16th, while Provo was 20th and Timpanogos, with its first ever state qualifiers, finished 22nd. A total of 26 4A schools competed at this year’s state tournament.

Girls wrestling has been sanctioned for six seasons and for the second time the state championship team did not crown a single individual champion. Mountain Crest put four in the finals but all of them lost. Wasatch won the 5A state title in 2024 with zero state champs as well. But just how rare is this? Well, in 76 years of recorded boys state tournaments it has occurred just three times.

Mountain Crest’s (195.5 team points) edged arch rival Ridgeline finished second just two points back. Ridgeline had a mathematical chance to take state if they could have won all four of their championship bouts by pin while Mountain Crest didn’t win a match. The Riverhawks couldn’t pull it off though as two of the wrestlers won by pin and the other two by decision.

Pre-tournament favorite Uintah suffered a huge blow when one of their top wrestlers, Kinzy McCauley, was disqualified for a skin condition. A likely finalist and the favorite to win at 100 pounds, Uintah likely lost 28-32 points and any chance to win the state title. The Utes finished third, 22.5 points behind Mountain Crest.

Snow Canyon’s Nia Hagler (48-0) joined Westlake’s Tevia Rarick (43-0) as the two female wrestlers that had unblemished records in the 2025-26 season.

1A/2A Girls Notes: At the 1A/2A state meet held in Richfield American Leadership Academy (ALA) finished 14th and Tintic 16th in the 22-team field. ALA’s Ryan Hiss (110) won a state title while her Eagle teammate Baily Tanner placed second at 145 pounds. Tintic’s Madaleigh Grimstead climbed to the top of the podium at 100 pounds. Duchesne won the team title.

Complete individual and team results can be found at www.trackwrestling.com or the Flo Wrestling platform.