Stansbury jumped ahead of Tooele 15-12 after the first five matches Thursday night at Stansbury.

But Tooele’s two talented big guys at 215 and 285 scored the next nine points to give the Buffaloes the lead for good and THS went on to win the match 36-29.

Tooele’s Joel Spendlove at 215 was in a battle with one of Stansbury’s top wrestlers Mason Burbidge. With the score tied at 1-1, Spendlove racked up three points with a near pin just seconds before the match ended to win 4-1 to help Tooele tie the team score at 15-15. Spendlove remains undefeated in region competition.

Tooele’s Marcus Westover at 285 then made quick work of his opponent with a pin in 1:05 to give the Buffaloes six team points and a 21-15 lead.

“Overall, I feel like our kids wrestled pretty well. Their main 103 guy Logan Stewart was out with a hamstring and they could have used him,” said Tooele coach Gary Coffman.

Tooele won seven matches and Stansbury won seven matches. But Tooele won the bonus points, said Stansbury coach Jim Burton. “They (Tooele) were able to get the bonus points with technical falls and pins,” Burton said.

Tooele coaches have been a bit baffled this season because some of the wrestlers they helped train over the past three years opted to wrestle at Stansbury for their senior seasons this year. Otherwise, THS coaches felt they might have had a state title contending team this season.

Stansbury coach Burton said he just took whoever showed up to try out for the team.

Tooele’s Zach Coffman remained undefeated in region matches with a pin over Gus Bustillos at 145 in the first match of the night.

Thomas Manning kept things rolling Tooele’s way with a pin over Matt Williams in the second match at 152 and the Buffs had a quick 12-0 lead.

The Stallions then won the next three matches and two of them by pins. Tyrell Osterud won by decision over Seth Albrecht at 160 and then Glen Kummer of SHS pinned Michael Crane of Tooele at 172. Stansbury’s Koleton Kroeger then pinned Tooele’s David Giles at 189 to give Stansbury a brief 15-12 lead.

Tooele came back to win the next three matches with wins from Spendlove, Westover and Nic Porter to surge ahead in team points 27-15.

Stansbury’s Jake Prather and Tooele’s Robert Lavios competed in one of the most exciting matches of the night with Prather winning 8-6 in overtime.

“I was really pleased with Lavios because he really wrestled well against a good wrestler. Prather is the only guy to beat him in region this year,” Coffman said.

Stansbury’s Kaylen Vickers helped narrow the team scoring gap when he scored a technical fall over Tooele’s Bryce Nieberg to make the score 27-23 for THS.

Each team won two of the final four matches of the night, but Tooele’s two victories were big because they meant a few more bonus points.

Seth Manning remained unbeaten in region competition with a major decision 17-5 over Derick Jorgensen. Then Mike Trujillo won by technical fall 19-2 over Dave Hansen. Those two Tooele wins put the match out of reach for Stansbury.

To finish off the match, Stansbury’s Toby Martinez won by decision over Braeden Torgensen and SHS’s Kyle Harding won by decision over Jesse Condie.

Tooele won the junior varsity match 66-18.

The Region 6 tournament will held in Tooele on Friday and Saturday with matches starting at 3 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday with the final scheduled for 5 p.m. Each region team will bring a varsity team and a junior varsity team. The top eight finishers in each class will qualify for the division tournament which will be held Feb. 5-6 at Higland with wrestlers from Region 5 and Region 6. The top eight finishers at the divsional tournament qualify for the state tournament Feb. 10-12 at Utah Valley University.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com