Valle beat Gines in overtime of last year’s state semifinals. The loss served as proverbial motivation for Gines, who trained all offseason and got better in hopes of beating Valle this time.

“I decided from that day I was going to work my butt off so that this year it wasn’t going to happen again, and it didn’t,” Gines said.

Even after all the energy and time Gines spent preparing, wrestling and thinking about Saturday’s match, the first thing Gines did when she beat Valle was help her off the mat.

And then Gines celebrated.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

Her third-period pin over Valle to win the 130-pound 6A girls state championship was the last chapter in an undefeated, 35-0 season for the Fremont senior.

“It’s crazy. I feel so good,” Gines said.

Gines, who has been wrestling for three years now, led Valle 6-2 going to the third period of their match and eventually got the pin.

If there was a way for her to wrestle or get better this past offseason, she did it, and some of the things she did paid off Saturday.

“I’ve been working a lot of (arm) bars and stuff like that. That definitely helped with that last little bit,” Gines said.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

Gines has the distinction of winning a state title with an undefeated record. Those were her two goals at the start of the year, she said.

“Brinlee is just exceptional. People talk about everyone’s replaceable, but Brinlee Gines is not replaceable. Period,” FHS head coach Cody Storey said.

Gines wasn’t the only Region 1 wrestler to cap a stellar season with a state title.

In the 100-pound championship match, Davis freshman Kristina Kent scored a 10-2, major-decision win against Bingham’s Mailien Tran to wrap up a 26-1 season.

And in an all-Region 1 match at 110 pounds, Layton sophomore Marlie Rigby outlasted Weber freshman Aleena Navarrete by a 6-4 decision.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

Their match was tied 4-4 until Rigby scored a takedown with eight seconds left in the match. Also for Layton, Samantha Memmott finished third at 115.

Roy wrestler Lexus Bertagnolli finished in third place at 110, winning the third-place match with a pin after 38 seconds.

The team standings were less kind to Region 1, whose high finisher was Syracuse in fifth place with 121 points. Westlake ran away with the title, getting 290 points.

LAYTON BOYS A CLOSE 2ND

Usually, Pleasant Grove runs away with the 6A boys wrestling team state championship.

This year, Layton High’s boys team gave the Vikings a run to the very end, coming within 10 points of dethroning the four-time defending state champ PG, which edged Layton 216.5 to 207 in the team standings.

Layton freshman Geronimo Rivera Jr. capped the first year of his Lancers career with a state championship at 113 pounds, pinning Tyler Vivanco of Corner Canyon in the first period.

The final match was Rivera Jr.’s quickest of the tournament, finishing in 1 minute, 41 seconds. He won his second-round and semifinal matches by 4-2 and 6-3 decisions, respectively, after a pin in 3:45 in the first round.

Layton junior Kael Bennie bested Weber’s Tanner Giatras 11-2 in their 165-pound championship match.

The Lancers also had a runner-up finish from Jace Lemons (120), third-place finishes from Cole Fenwick (106) and Ryker Brann (132), plus fourth-place finishes by Andrew Crowther (150) fourth and Noah Mandleco (175).

Farmington High’s Sam May finished a 50-win season with a 6-0 decision win in the 157-pound finals over Bingham’s Carson Neff.

Fremont High finished fifth in the team standings, helped by a third-place finish from Cal Christiansen (126), Corbin Platt (150) and Ridge Lindley (190).

Weber’s Ian Briskey (285) took third place for his team joining Syracuse’s Jordan Faifai (157), Syracuse’s Zach Phipps (165), Davis’ Jacob Waddoups (120), Davis’ Geovanni Thomas (165) and Farmington’s Hudson Palmer (113) as additional third-place finishers from Region 1.

4A WRESTLING

In the 4A girls wrestling state tournament Saturday in Richfield, Bear River’s Sadie Hardy (100), Bella Gunderson (115), Josie Redman (140), Rhees Hatch (145) and Shanna Archuleta (235) won state titles for the Bears, who were second as a team with 366 points (Mountain Crest won with 466.5 points).

Sophia Miller (120), Hailey Branch (130) and Haylee Farnsworth (170) were second in their brackets.

In the boys tournament, Bear River’s Daxton Bingham won the 106-pound championship with an 8-7 decision against Snow Canyon’s Asher Farr.

Kayden Ward (113) and River Smith (175) finished second for the Bears, while Kaeson Burn (190), Zach Gunderson (144) and Dustin Douglas (150) were third in their brackets.

BR took third as a team with 242.5 points.