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To label Aaron Kuttler as weird or quirky almost seems unfair.

Offbeat? Eccentric? Still not quite right.

Unconventional is probably the best way to describe him.

Kuttler, a wrestler at East High School, really couldn't care less what adjective you use to describe him. Just make sure you mix in the most current and accurate term of all: state champion.

The yoga-practicing, weight-class jumping senior pulled off the unexpected earlier this month by defeating the top two seeds in the 189-pound bracket to claim the Class 4A state title.

"I'm not a typical 189er," Kuttler said. "I'm short, a little bit skinny — I don't quite weigh 189. I do yoga, so I'm pretty flexible. Guys will try to throw me, but I've got pretty good flexibility and position to move with them. They don't really know how to wrestle me."

Kuttler became East's first state champion since 1998, when B.J. Minson, who is now East's coach, was crowned at 103 pounds.

His improbable title seemed a long shot at best at the season's start. Kuttler, who was disqualified for not making weight at 171 pounds in last year's regional tournament, could have started the year two weight classes lower than where he finished.

"He was cleared to wrestle 160s," said Minson, in his first year as head coach after three years as an assistant at East. "But he was wrestling 171s for a while and he came to me and said he wanted to wrestle at 189.

"He had trouble making weight one time and for the most part he didn't want to have to deal with that at all."

Kuttler moved up to 189s around Christmas and entered the state meet with a 20-4 record, despite being outweighed in nearly each of his 189-pound matches.

His title dreams were seconds from being wiped away in the opening round of the state meet at Utah Valley University as Kuttler struggled against Maple Mountain's Ammon Stone.

"He wrestled terribly," Minson said. "He wrestled a JV guy who took seventh in the South and he just barely pulled it off."

But a pin with just 9 seconds remaining advanced Kuttler, who by then had shaken the nerves of competing in his first state tournament.

Kuttler earned an 11-5 decision against Maple Mountain's Lorenzo Rowley to set up a semifinal showdown with Provo's Creed Richardson, who had cruised through the first two state matches and carried a 55-3 record into the semis.

"I like to wrestle slow and at the beginning go at my own pace," Kuttler said. "That forces them to wrestle my way instead of me wrestling their way."

Kuttler's way resulted in a 9-5 decision and a rematch with Mountain Crest's Joseph Carley in the final. In their previous meeting this season, the two wrestled scoreless before Kuttler said he slipped and was pinned. This time, Kuttler scored early and led throughout the match. It was Carley's second defeat against 28 victories this season.

"He wrestled and listened better than he ever had before," Minson said of the 9-3 decision. "And he won the match pretty convincingly."

Kuttler said it took a day for reality to set in. That's when he heard his name announced at a school assembly.

"I was like, 'Oh yeah, I did that,' " Kuttler said. "I was in dream mode for a little bit."

Not a dream. Just an unconventional path to a very real championship.