Virgin Valley High School had four wrestlers place first, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a strong performance by defending champion Boulder City in the 3A South regional meet Saturday at Western High School in Las Vegas.

The Bulldogs, who qualified 11 wrestlers for Friday’s 3A state meet at The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, totaled 217 points to finish runner-up behind Boulder City’s 273 points. Pahrump Valley was third with 207 points.

Rudy Cannon (106 pounds), Ty Smith (120), Cresent Crandall (132) and Wyatt Hillus (285) captured first-place medals for the Bulldogs at the meet.

Virgin Valley also qualified Vicente Pinto, who placed second at 126 and Josh Abbott, third at 145. VVHS also had four wrestlers place fourth – Gage Woods (113), Angel DeSantiago (120), Case Crandall (132) and Dayden Payne (220). Timmy Moeai was fifth at 160.

Cannon pinned Curtis Brown of Boulder City at 2:15 in the championship match at 106. Cannon also pinned Angelo Avila-Cunanon of Cheyenne at 1:02.

Smith, a three-time state champion, defeated Garrett Leavitt of Boulder City by major decision, 16-8, at 120. Smith pinned Abraham Navas of Western at 1:41 in the semifinals and won by fall over Donnie Miller of Pahrump Valley at 1:54 in the quarterfinals.

Cresent Crandall pinned all three of his opponents to win the 182-pound title. Crandall won by fall over Cole Walker of Pahrump Valley at 57 seconds in the title match. He also pinned Jeremiah Hardison of Cheyenne at 1:32 in the semifinals and Jason Martinez of Desert Pines at 47 seconds in the quarterfinals.

Hillius also pinned all three of his opponents to win at 285. Hillius won the title match by fall over Ivan Parra of Mojave at 4:16. He pinned Chance Franz of Cheyenne in the semifinals at 1:41 and Armanie McGhee of Pahrump Valley at 3:41 in the quarterfinals.