This was the year of the Cowboys in the 2024 Tournament of Champions in Vernal, Utah. No Meeker team has placed as high as they did this year — they finished in fourth place — and no Meeker team has seen three wrestlers in the championships in one year as far back as the record goes in TrackWrestling.
Meeker topped the small schools, all schools from Colorado and Wyoming, and continued to march up the standings as the tournament progressed.
The Cowboys crowned one champion, Judd Harvey at 215 pounds. Harvey pinned his way through his first three matches wrestling for a total of 2 minutes and 56 seconds and securing his spot, for the second year in a row, in the championship match.
“I had set a goal at the beginning of the year to go undefeated,” said Harvey, “I took second place last year in the Warrior, TOC, and because of injury TOP of the Rockies, and I am working hard in the weight room and in practice to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Harvey met Dallin Sweat from Manti in the finals. Sweat is a returning state champion in Utah Class 4A.
“Judd wrestled really, really good, maybe as good as I have seen him,” commented head coach JC Watt. “I also think that is the best kid Judd has ever beat, definitely one of the toughest kids.”
“So far this year he is definitely the strongest person I have had to wrestle,” commented Harvey, “he ran out of steam after the first period and about halfway through the second I knew I had him beat.”
“Judd had no stall warnings and wrestled really smart,” said Watt. ”He scrambled good, better than the 113-pound match that we saw, and at 215 pounds that is just fun to watch. A year ago Judd may not have beat that kid, he had to really wrestle and was not just able to muscle him around by being bigger and stronger; he moved well on the mat and it was an all around great match.”
Harvey is now the only Cowboy who remains undefeated on the team.
Cade Blunt and Brendan Clatterbaugh both took second place and had their first appearance in the finals. They handily worked their way through the championship side of the bracket to earn a shot at taking first.
“Blunt wrestled great and then ran into a kid from Uintah that was really tough,” commented Watt. “He won the warrior and is undefeated this year. He still wrestled well just a tough kid.”
“It felt good to come back after Christmas and it’s always nerve racking to come right back into the Tournament Of Champions and at the same time it is nice to see how you stack up against the 4a and 5a schools,” commented Blunt. “I feel like as the season is continuing I am getting more comfortable and have settled into things.” Blunt will get an opportunity to face the kid this weekend as Meeker is slated to dual Uintah in Green River in round three of the Thoman Tournament on Friday.
“The finals match was tough and that kid is going to be hard to beat,” said Blunt, “he is good on his feet and is dominant on top. Coming out hot and trying to get an early takedown is going to be my game plan. If I can stay off bottom and push the pace I think a much different outcome is going to be present. A full week of practice is going to help a lot, Coach Lee and I have a game plan for this week.”
Clatterbaugh at 190 pounds was winning the match when he got caught at the beginning of the second period. The loss was Clatterbaugh’s first of the year.
“Buzz just got caught in a Hail Mary move but wrestled really well,” said Watt. “The kid had actually tried the move previously and it didn’t work, but the second time it did. It is the kind of move that is hard to teach kids to defend against and some kids are just really good at it.”
Noah LeBlanc placed third in his first-ever TOC as a varsity wrestler. LeBlanc and Hayden Shults are heavyweights and both wrestled the varsity bracket; Shults placed seventh.
“Noah and Hayden both wrestled really well and had some challenging matches” said Watt.
At 120 pounds freshman Koy Weber placed seventh. Weber faced the third-ranked Chase Preston in the crying round and won by decision.
“Koy is going to turn heads,” began Watt, “he wrestled so well this weekend and is improving weekly. We see him growing in confidence and maturing in his wrestling style.”
132-pound Clay Crawford also placed seventh. In his opening match he lost a tough one but turned around and beat the kid on the consolation side of the bracket.
“Clay battled hard on the back side of the bracket, earning a ton of team points,” said Watt. “It was great that he got some revenge and we now have a new strategy for moving forward.”
Jake Blazon, Trevor Crooks, Coy Richardson, Dawson Richardson, Tanner Goodwin, and Reed Goedert all wrestled the varsity bracket but did not place.
“I think as a team it was not just the placers that did well, but all the kids are improving each week and doing really well,” commented Watt. “In the second chance Jake and Coy both had really great tournaments and we saw Tanner open up, start wrestling and getting things figured out.”
The rest of the team wrestled the JV tournament which allowed them to get some good quality mat time, learn and grow with kids of the same experience level.
“This was the best performance this year,” commented assistant coach Carl Padilla. “Our kids are going to peak at the right time.”
From here on out the JV and varsity will be participating together in the same facilities but in separate tournaments.
“We saw some really good things out of all of the kids,” commented Watt, “Holton Harvey is going to open some eyes and I think that Wyatt Powers, who is a senior, is ready to get some varsity experience.”
This weekend the team will participate in the Thoman Invitational and Best of the Best Classic. They will wrestle Pinedale and Uintah on Friday in the auxiliary gym of Green River High School. The JV will have a standard tournament.
Before this weekend, you can catch the Cowboys in their first home duals of the year. Delta is coming to town Thursday and the matches begin at 6 p.m
