The Dixie State Wrestling Club continued its winning ways this weekend when it hosted the Southern Utah Brawl at the DSU Student Activity Center.
Although the DSU wrestling team is still considered a club, it competes in the NAWA classification, which is the only lower division that is collegiately sanctioned. Coach Wayne Briggs said he believes it’s just as competitive as any other division because a lot of bigger schools are being forced to cancel their wrestling programs due to Title IX.
In just its fourth year in existence, the DSU wrestling program is already making its presence known. The Storm have been beating Division I programs and holding their own in tournaments all year; on Saturday, DSU hosted one of its own.
Just a week after defeating the likes of the University of Southern California and Arizona in Los Angeles, the DSU Wrestling Club hosted the Southern Utah Brawl. The brawl would pin the Storm up against Brigham Young University, University of California Los Angeles, and Glendale Community College.
BYU, UCLA and Glendale CC wrestling teams came into St. George last week to face the Storm, and all of them left with a loss.
Dixie State dominated the Southern Utah Brawl, winning six of the 10 weight classes and won the overall score by tallying 80 points. UCLA finished second with 42, BYU had 31 and Glendale finished with 25. Coach Briggs said he praised his team for its resilience and comradery.
“The guys have been awesome,” Briggs said. “They have really stuck with the tough training regiment and stayed together. We literally practice every day while these other schools only get together once or twice a week. That’s why we’re seeing this success.”
The six individual champions for DSU were Jesse Vaughn (125 pounds), David Alldredge (133), Pierce Stowman (165), JJ Dougherty (174), Brian Curtis (197), and Ryan Peterson (235).