Parents save wrestling match after power outage

ST. GEORGE, Utah – A major power outage affected hundreds in St. George Saturday night, but for the crowds at Dixie High School it almost shut down an entire wrestling tournament until fans decided the match must go on.

“The lights kind of flickered, and then they went out and we both kind of looked at each other like: ‘Oh boy’,” said Marcus Farnsworth, father of Wrestler Shane Farnsworth.

Marcus says his Shane, a Hurricane High senior, had been prepping for the 4A divisional finals for a long time.

“Kind of a big deal for him, this is his first time at this big of a tournament,” said Farnsworth. So when the power went out around 7 p.m. and, according to Craig Milligan a Dixie High teacher, students screamed and tired parents who had traveled hours to be there groaned: One by one – light by light .- cell phones lit the gym.

“Instantly people were pulling out their phones and it was bright,” said Marcus.

The referee’s huddled and came up with idea, and without a PA system the announcer shouted, asking parents and fans to come down from the stands and surround the mat with their phones.

“It was a mass of people coming down all at once. it felt a little bit like a street fight to me,” said Marcus.

There might not have been light in that gym, but there was still a power.

“You could feel the emotion, and the intensity, and the electricity through the building,” said Jarad Carson, a Dixie High Wrestling Coach.

It might be that electricity that helped Shane.

“He realized he was going to wrestle in the dark with the lights shining like that, I could see his adrenaline. When he’s excited, and his adrenaline is going, he’s pretty unstoppable. And he won,” said Marcus.

The power outage was due to a failed connector. After crews changed the connector, the power was back on later that evening.

This article was first published by fellow CNN affiliate KTVX. It is used here with permission.