Brilliance on the mat: Top 10 Utah wrestling stories for 2025
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- Timpanogos’s Xander Carlson celebrates winning a state title at the 4A finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.
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- Spanish Fork’s Ryker Olson celebrates winning a state title at the 5A finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.
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- UVU wrestler Terrell Barraclough (right) celebrates after winning the fifth-place match at the NCAA wrestling tournament at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
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- Orem’s Sophia Johnson celebrates defeating Jordan High’s Rilyne Dangerfield during the first day of action at the 4A state finals at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025.
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- Wrestlers compete on the first day of the state girls wrestling tournament at the UCCU Center in Orem on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025.
This past year was another significant one in prep and collegiate wrestling in Utah County.
Here are the top ten wrestling stories for Utah County for 2025.
10. Charity duals
The 2025-26 season started off with a bang as Provo High School hosted the 15th Annual Wrestling Against Cancer Duals. Two families with members battling cancer were again honored with a charity donation. On the wrestling front, Salem Hills made a big statement in girls wrestling sweeping its opponents by lopsided scores. Provo also earned two victories. On the boys front, Timpanogos lost to the 3-time returning state champs in Layton in one dual while beating Skyridge in another.
9. Tiger tales
It was bad news and good news for Orem wrestling. The Tigers dropped their boys wrestling team for the 2024-2025 season while Sophia Johnson represented Orem at the girls state tournament while working out with Mountain View. Now this year, Orem has both boys and girls teams. The Tigers girls team had eight athletes to start the season and earned a dual meet victory at the Wrestling Against Cancer Duals over Manti.
8. Sanderson dynasty
Former Wasatch High 4-time state champion and Olympic gold medalist Cael Sanderson led Penn State to its fourth straight NCAA title. For Sanderson it was 12th title as he has turned the Nittany Lions into a dynastic powerhouse. His older brother Cody, who was the inaugural head coach for Utah Valley University, serves as an assistant coach.
7. Westlake turnover
Former Utah Valley assistant coach Erkin Tadzhimetov will now lead the Westlake boys wrestling program. He will be the third head coach in three years for the highly successful Thunder program taking over for Blake Mangum.
6. Kelley retires
Cole Kelley retired as head wrestling coach at American Fork High School. His son Tege was a 3-time finalist and 2023 state champion for the Caveman program. Kelley has also run the Rockwell Rumble which is the largest invitational tournament in the state but has sold the rights to the tournament to USA Wrestling Utah. Kelley will assist in running the event this year during the transition.
5. T-Wolves surge
In the space of two weeks Timpanogos held off rival Mountain View in a spirited dual meet with a standing room only crowd and then topped the Bruins to win the silver trophy at the 4A state boys meet as Uintah again repeated as team champs. All of this helped Timberwolf head coach Alex Nicholes to be named as the top wrestling coach in the county by the Daily Herald.
4. Gonna be golden
The Rarick sisters for Westlake dominated the competition this year. Keilikki won her fourth state title and was named by the Daily Herald as the Outstanding Female High School Wrestler for Utah County. She now competes for Lindenwood University. Her younger sister Tevia, now a sophomore, remains undefeated as a high school wrestler. Tevia medaled in several national tournaments and has pinned all her opponents in Utah prep wrestling so far. And at the state tournament, thanks to back-to-back pins by the Rarick siblings, Westlake vaulted past Copper Hills to win the silver trophy.
3. Hall of Fame honors
Ben Kjar, Utah Valley’s first All-American wrestler, along with longtime Wasatch head coach Wade Discher, were inducted in the USA Wrestling Utah Hall of Fame. Kjar, who was diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome, overcame huge obstacles to be one of the best wrestlers in Utah history and his life journey will be chronicled in the movie “Standout” which opens in theaters on January 23. Discher coached Wasatch to 10 state titles, eight in the traditional format along with two dual meet state titles. Discher’s son Jakob won three titles for the Wasp program.
2. UVU All-American
Terrell Barraclough became Utah Valley’s fifth All-American as the Wolverine grappler placed fifth at the NCAA meet. Barraclough, who won four state titles at Layton High School, actually came to Utah Valley via the transfer portal from Penn State and gave first-year coach Adam Hall his first All-American.
1. State powerhouses
Utah County and Wasatch once again had a strong presence at the state wrestling meets.
The Spanish Fork boys repeated as 5A champs and the Dons crowned five individual champions and bested Box Elder in a very exciting and tight team race. Karson Shelley became the first 4-time state champion in school history and the Don wrestler was tabbed as the top male wrestler in Utah County by the Daily Herald. Though Wasatch placed third in 5A boys, the Wasps had five grapplers win gold medals. Westlake (6A) and Timpanogos (4A) were both runners-up with two individual champs each.
Meanwhile, the Wasatch girls eased to victory with three individual champions to win their second straight team title. Pallas Anderson became the first individual state champ in school history. It was a good showing overall for Utah County as both Cedar Valley (5A) and Westlake (6A) were runners-up with two individual champs each. And Salem Hills placed fourth in the 5A girls race also crowning two individual champs.
