Orem, Utah - All eyes in the wrestling world of Utah look forward to February, because this means Utah high school state wrestling is at hand.  Heading into the 4A title search would be pre-tournament favorite Springville, with a stock pile of top contenders, Mountain Crest, with two sets of brothers leading the way, or Box Elder who consistently finishes the season at the top of their game.  Coach Ripplinger was very excited after the last matches had been wrestled on Thursday night because the Bees had done what coach Ripplinger had challenged them to do; that sending six wrestlers into the finals and bringing three others through the back door to join with the other three Bees who had lost in the semis to drop down into the consolation matches.  This gave the Bees six wrestlers in the finals and six in the consolation wrestle backs with only a deficit of three points heading into the last day of competition.  Mountain Crest was in first place with the Bees following in second trailing by only 3 points and third was pre-tournament favorite Springville, just 11 points behind Box Elder.
            Box Elder wrestled well on Friday, the last day of competition in the 4A.  However, Mountain Crest was able to win some big matches in the consolation finals that gave them a comfortable lead heading into the finals.  Those that wrestled well in the consolation matches were; Colton Gladwell, a freshman, who finished in fifth place.  Colton finished the tournament with a 14 point win over a Springville wrestler in a key head-to-head match up.  Jesse Caldwell, a junior, finished fifth as well.  Nate Marble put together a run in the consolation matches that gave him wins over a couple of wrestlers who had beaten him earlier in the year and even at the region tournament last week.  Coach Ripplinger was quite excited in Nate’s performance because the way Nate wrestled at state had to be his best performance of the year.  Nate truly peaked at state. Jaron and Skyler both finished solidly for the Bees, Jaron Jensen finished in fourth, while Skyler Korth finished the state tournament with another key win over a Springville wrestler in the consolation finals and placed third for the Bees.  Finishing off the Bee consolation wrestlers was Brian Curtis a sophomore  who finished with a sixth place finish.
            Heading into the finals the Bees had lost a little ground on Mountain Crest trailing by eleven points.  The Bees did have six wrestlers in the finals, one more than either Mountain Crest or Springville who each had five wrestlers in the finals. The first wrestler up for Box Elder was Jed Shannon at 112 pounds who met his long time rival from Roy, Wyatt Ray.  This time it was Ray’s turn to get the win leaving Jed with the runner-up medal.    Jed was followed by Gavin Johnson, Box Elders 145 pound wrestler who was facing off against Mountain Crest wrestler, Zeke Smethurst.  This match was probably billed as the most important match-up of the evening.  The match ended in a 1 to 1 tie.  The match remained tied until Zeke was able to gain an escape from Johnson during the 6 peroid of the match. Gavin was followed by teammate Kolby Williamson in the 152 pound finals who had a rematch of his region 4 finals match with Ethan Lofthouse of Mountain Crest.  Kolby finished with a second place finish.  This left the Bees with all three of their junior finalist finishing with runner-up medals. 
            Next came the three Bee seniors who had made the finals.  First up was Colby Kearl, Box Elder’s 160 pound finalist.  Colby faced Ojuka of Provo.  As this match finished in a tie at the end of regulation with a 1 to 1 tie the match headed into overtime.  The match finally ended in sudden victory, the seventh period, when Colby was able to gain a quick escape from Ojuka for the title. 
            Riley Yeates, the Bees 171 pound wrestler was next up for the Bees.  The capacity crowd watched as the match progressed wondering if Riley could make it through the match without one of his shoulders popping out.  Riley’s shoulder not only popped out once but popped out twice.  As the final seconds were winding down everyone was hoping that his shoulder would not stop the match a third time.  If the shoulder did pop out and the match had to be stopped Riley would loose by default.  However, Yeates was able to finish the match and won the dramatic championship which gave Yeates his second state championship.  Later as the tournament concluded Yeates was voted as the outstanding wrestler in the upper weights.  
            To finish the night, the final contestant for Box Elder was 285 pound wrestler, Riggin Holmgren.  Riggin faced off against a Murray opponent who had beaten him at the Richardson earlier in the year.  This time Riggin was ready for the rematch and after a takedown to gain the lead, Riggin turned Fairbrother of Murray with a cradle to get a comfortable lead and a 5-3 win. 
            In the end Box Elder wrestled the best they had all year.  The Bees finished with the runner-up trophy but felt satisfied with the fact that they had wrestled their best at the state tournament where it really matters the most.