Castle Country Cornhole shines at Utah State ACL Championship

Castle Country Cornhole came home from Nephi with more than one state title and a strong case that its players are no longer just showing up, they are contending. Thad Whiteside and Jeremy Quarnberg won Tier 3 doubles, Dylan Priano and David Adair battled back from the losers bracket to finish fifth in Tier 2, and Adair capped the weekend by winning the singles championship at the 25/26 ACL Utah State Championships.

The tournament ran Friday and Saturday, June 12-13, at Nephi City Recreation and drew players across seniors, women, juniors, doubles and singles divisions. That format mattered because the American Cornhole League’s Player Engagement Program awards points at every tournament, which means the weekend was about more than hardware. It was about standings, season positioning and whether Castle Country’s best could hold up against a deeper state field.

Whiteside and Quarnberg handled their Tier 3 bracket and finished with the kind of result that turns a good local duo into a real threat on the ACL circuit. Priano and Adair took the harder road in Tier 2, falling early before grinding through the losers side to salvage fifth. In cornhole, that kind of recovery matters. One cold round can bury a team, and making it back into the top five says as much about nerve as it does about scoring.

Adair’s singles run was the weekend’s biggest statement. Winning a state championship in a points event gives the club a centerpiece result, and it fits the direction Castle Country Cornhole has been pushing for months. Whiteside has said the camaraderie and the people are what keep him coming back, and that shared base now looks like a competitive pipeline.

The wins also sit inside a broader local push. At the Carbon County Fair’s CornChuck Tournament, Courtney and David Adair took first place, with Taylor Rasmussen and Jayson Fausett finishing second. A Castle Country Cornhole charity event for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital drew 52 participants, and the summer schedule keeps the boards busy with Orangeville Days on June 20, the Greek Festival on July 13, Pioneer Days in Wellington on July 25 and a CNS Fundraiser Tournament on Nov. 7. Castle Country is not just producing winners anymore, it is building the structure that keeps them coming back.