| OCR Text |
Show McNeil Looks To Noxt Yesr W iflf liilllllWI MATT McNEIL By DAVE WIGHAM BOUNTIFUL Junior Matt McNeil of Viewmont has set himself up as a target for next year. "A COUPLE of weeks ago Matt placed second at the state 4A wrestling tournament in the 132 lbs. division. That means that next season Matt will be the man to beat, since the winner win-ner was a senior from Skyline. "I guess people will be looking look-ing and gunning for me next season, but I'll be ready," he noted. AT THE end of football season, sea-son, where Matt also sees a big future for next year, Matt weighed in at 150 lbs. That meant he could wrestle at 145, 138 and 132 lbs. "Coach Sanderson San-derson and I just figured I could do best at 132 lbs. It really real-ly wasn't that hard to lose the weight and then to keep it down there" he added. When wrestling season began, be-gan, Matt had some goals or at least ideas in the back of his mind. "At the start of the year I just wanted to place in the state tournament. Then about halfway through the season I figured I could do better than that so I set the goal of getting into the finals," he admitted. ON THE year Matt finished with a great 25-6 record. Included In-cluded in that record was a fourth place finish in the Viewmont View-mont Invitational, a second place finish at Box Elder and a third at the Pleasant Grove tournament. It was in the Pleasant Grove event that he first ran into John Robbins of Skyline, that man who beat him for the state title . Robbins was undefeated on the season at 34-0 and his toughest matches were both with Matt. IN THEIR first meeting many felt Matt had pinned his opponent but the official was not one of them. In the end Robbins came out with a 13-1 1 win. Matt wet through region dual meets without a loss until he ran into Alan Anderson of Woods Cross. In their dual meeting Alan won 8-5. Once they got into the region tournament tourna-ment though things turned out a little different. "Yes I definitely defi-nitely wanted revenge for that loss in the finals. I got it too when I pinned him in the opening open-ing round." SO MATT went into the state meet as the number one wrestler from this league. The coaches seeded Robbins first and Matt second. In the opening match of the state tournament. Matt drew a fourth place region finisher from Roy. The Roy wrestler quickly took Matt down but it didn't surprise him at all, "I always seem to get taken down. I wasn't worried at that time. I.ve spent most of my time practicing on the mat and haven't spent as much time on the my feet as I should have," he admitted. MATT SOON got ahead of the Roy opponent 5-2 and then pinned him in the second period. In the quarterfinals Matt found himself up against Ray Salazaar of Granite who had placed in the state tournament the previous year. "He set a fast pace for himself in the first round. He slowed down in the . second and was dead in the third," noted Matt. Matt used that third period to his advantage advan-tage to take a convincing 17-10 win. THAT MOVED HIM into the semifinals where he faced a sophomore from West Jordan. "I sat there and watched Chris Hansen and Chris Piatt lose in the semifinals and I was getting mad. I wanted to win bad. 1 was on top the whole match but just couldn't turn him for the pin." Matt had earned a solid 6-2 win to send him into the finals. ROBBINS DIDN'T want anything to do with Matt on the mat. He would take him down and then let him go. take him down and let him up again. "He beat me 12-8 and actually gave me most of the points. Six of them he let me go and the other two were for stalling. He actually stalled the Third period. At least I though he did." Matt confided. Even Robbins admitted to the strategy. "He's great on the mat to I just went take downs with him. MR. MCNEIL began his wrestling career in the seventh grade at Bountiful Jr. High. His older brother was involved in the sport so he took it up. In the eigth grade he placed second in the district meet behind be-hind a ninth grader. H was a favorite in the ninth grade but illness caught up to him and he had to settle for fourth place. As a sophomore at Viewmont, View-mont, he wrestled varsity in the 126 lbs. class taking fourth at region while compiling a 1 1-7 1-7 overall record. AS FOR his junior year. "I was a little surprised about it to be honest. I was disappointed with second place but that's not too bad for a junior when you think about it." Matt said. As for his senior year. "I'll probably be 138 lbs. next year, but I still hooe to win it all." |
