Feb. 16, 2008: Provo Daily Herald

Chamberlain Caps Off Stellar Career with a Rare Fourth State Championship
by Russ Lyman

Their names were Casey Smith and Phil Boyer. Those were the two wrestlers Jason Chamberlain lost to during his high school wrestling career. The list of the Springville senior's victories is significantly longer.

On Friday night in the 4A state championship finals at UVSC, Chamberlain culminated one of the greatest wrestling careers in Utah high school history with a dominating 23-8 win over Pine View's Matt McDonald for his fourth state championship, a feat accomplished by only a handful of wrestlers in state history.

Chamberlain was named as 4A's outstanding wrestler in the lower weights following his state-record 191st win, a win that he savored a little longer than most of the previous 190. Instead of quickly pinning his opponent, Chamberlain took his time in taking McDonald down, letting him up, then repeating. Although he didn't get the pin, there was never any doubt as to what the result would be.

"It was about like our other match we had early on this year," Chamberlain said after beating the 40-3 McDonald for the second time this year. "He wrestled more physical, but I stuck to my game plan and wrestled how I always wrestle."

And by wrestling how he always wrestles, he won like he always wins and accomplished a dream that he and almost every other wrestler has had of becoming a four-time champion.

"I remember long ago my dad was talking to another coach while watching another kid (Ohio's David Taylor) and I drill and said 'right there are two four-time state champs,' " Chamberlain said. "My dad told me that and I've been working on it ever since then. It's been really fun."

As is the case with most four-time state champs, Chamberlain's toughest and most meaningful test came his freshman year when he beat Caleb Isom, who was a returning state runner-up.

Looking back on the journey he started four years ago, the humble Chamberlain can now boast of beating every person he ever wrestled. After losing to Smith in the first tournament of his career, Chamberlain defeated the Wasatch alum twice the next year. Chamberlain also avenged his loss to Boyer later on during the same tournament in Reno.

Although he acknowledges he's among the state's best wrestlers of all time, Chamberlain refuses to put himself at the top of the list.

"I don't know. I don't judge from other wrestlers, they're all good in different ways," Chamberlain said. "I wouldn't say I'm the best ever, but I consider myself one of the best, I guess."

His coach, Justin Judkins, doesn't hesitate to call his 140-pounder the best.

"To be honest with you, I think he's probably the best wrestler to ever come through the state," Judkins said. "He has the high school state record (for the best record). I don't think I'm being too biased in saying that and I think a lot of other coaches would agree with me."

Although the night belonged to Chamberlain, Utah Valley was able to boast another 4A state champion in Payson's McCade Ford, who defeated Springville's defending state champion, Hayden Petersen, 3-2 to win the 135-pound state championship.

After a scoreless first period, Ford allowed Petersen to escape early in the second period. The pair battled on their feet until Ford got a double-leg takedown to take a 2-1. Petersen tied it with an escape late in the second. Tied 2-2 going into the third, Ford started in the down position and got a quick escape to take a 3-2 lead that he held onto the rest of the way.

"Greatest feeling in my life, nothing better than that," Ford said after his second win over Petersen in the past week. "I've dreamt about it since I was a little kid. It just feels good to finally get it done after a lot of years of wrestling."

Ford, who wrestled much of the year at 140 pounds, moved down to 135 late in the season so that he could realize his goal of a state title.

"I thought it was the right weight for me to go," Ford said. "I thought I'd have a lot better chance against Hayden Petersen than I would Jason Chamberlain."

While he may have avoided Chamberlain to some extent, Ford was quick to acknowledge that he still had his work cut out for him to defeat Petersen.

"He's as tough as there is in the state," Ford said. "He's a defending champ, so it just makes it that much better to beat him."

Ford was Payson's only state champion in the tournament as the other four Lions in the finals lost.

Brock Brown wrestled tough, but fell to Highland's Mike Phetvitay 10-9. Brown trailed by three points late, and got the takedown he needed and began to turn Phetvitay onto his back when the final whistle sounded.

Colton Cannon lost to the state's top 145-pounder in Matt Brown from Cyprus. 171-pounder Hesston Parkin and 189-pounder Norman Adams each showed a lot of heart, but eventually lost to Dixie's Tanner Torres and Nate Carter, respectively.

As a team, Payson finished in third place behind state champion Mountain Crest and runner-up Box Elder.

"We were hoping for a little better than third place. We were hoping for a trophy but nothing to hang our heads about," said Payson coach Chris Loveless. "In a tough tournament, we placed nine kids and put five in the finals, so we did a good job."