BHS Wrestling to Success

Photo by Photo courtesy of McCade Gordon

Junior Jordan McRae wrestles in a match against West Jordan.

“After you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy” is a slogan that Bingham wrestlers live by. BHS wrestling is underway and is engaged in a great season. A lot of people know wrestling requires extreme strength, but are unfamiliar with details of the sport.

Each wrestler in the high school season is matched up against someone in their weight class to wrestle. Points are awarded to the team based on how well he performs on the mat. The team receives six points for a pin (kept on back with both shoulders touching for three seconds) and the matchup ends. Wrestlers earn individual points by executing takedowns, escapes, reversals, near pins, and penalty points.

If a wrestler gets ahead by 15 he receives five team points, wins by 8-14 points he gets four team points, and winning by less than 8 receives three team points. The team is finding success as the season is in full swing.

Head Coach Matthew Walker mentioned how this year’s team is different from teams in the past.

“It’s a different kind of team. Everybody kind of pulls their weight. And it’s through that—everybody winning matches—that we have success, where in some years we’ve had All-Americans and National Champions on the team.”

Senior Heavyweight Austin Bunkall also mentioned how the team seems to be working well this season.

“I feel like our team together as a whole is a lot more in tune with each other,” he said. “We’re more focused on our goals.”

Senior Cole Schieving, who wrestles in the 120 weight class, agreed about the team’s success as a whole.

“I feel like the team is closer and more hard-working that we were in previous years.”

The team is 16-7 through January 30th when they took down Brighton. They are looking successful as the varsity lineup is cruising through their dual meets.

“The whole varsity lineup is doing very well. Honestly, whenever any of them lose we actually are shocked that they lost,” said Walker.

Coach Walker said that with wrestlers like Jacob Barton, Jordan McRae, Nick Heninger, and Zachary Wilkin, the team doesn’t have any holes. Assistant Coach Robby Duncan expressed how the team is full of experience.

“We’re very senior-dominant,” he said.

Both Walker and Duncan added that Dakota Zucker, Landon Munson, Will Prison, Morgan DeGooyer, Nate Naylor, Zach McDougall, and Jake Funes are doing particularly well this season.

The state tournament will be at the Maverik Center on February 13-14.

“[As state approaches] the focus starts to shift a little bit from the team to the individual,” Duncan said.