On Friday night in the 4A state championship finals at UVSC, Jason Chamberlain of Springville 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.

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."