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Show Viewmont To Host Top Wrestling Meet By DAVE WIG HAM BOUNTIFUL In past years the Viewmont Invitational Invita-tional Wrestling Tournament has been one of the top rated events in the area and with eight of the best teams entered this year this could be the best ever. THE TOURNAMENT gets underway at the Viking gym this Friday with the junior varsity var-sity event starting at I p.m. followed fol-lowed immediately by the first round action of the varsity. The second session begins for the junior varsity wrestlers at 6 p.m. with the varisity boys going at it at 7:30 p.m. The consolation rounds start on Saturday with JV at 1 1 :30 a.m. and the varsity right after. The championships will be at 6 p.m. for JV and 7:30 p.m. for the varsity teams. THIS YEARS field is the best ever for their tournament as several of the top rated clubs in the state will be entered. en-tered. Besides the host View-mont View-mont team there is Layton, Alta, Spanish Fork, Pleasant Grove. Mi. View, Box Elder and Delta. Coach Steve Sanderson of Viewmont gave a little inside information on each of these teams. Spanish Fork has three or four top individuals on their club, Viewmont just recently knocked off the Dons in a dual match but Coach Sanderson indicated they have some top individuals. LAYTON IS always strong in tournament and this year is no exception as the Lancers are led by the Zamora brother, the oldest being a defending state champion. Alta has a strong team this season, they've already won the West invitational over such clubs as Woods Cross and Granger. Pleasant Grove has a solid team, last year they placed sixth in the state meet and have virtually their entire team back this season. One of their top wrestlers is Kelly Sanderson in the 126 lbs. class. Kelly is the younger brother of the Viewmont coach. BOX ELDER is strong again this year w ith several members of last years second place state team. Both the Smoot and Richards boys are back after placing second and third in state respectively. Then comes the two teams that Sanderson points to for the team title. Mt. View has three top wrestlers. Their 185 pounder won the state title last year and they have state run-nerups run-nerups back at 1 26 and 1 3S lbs. JUST THE name Delta puts fear in most wrestlers. The Rabbits have won the state title ti-tle the past eight years in a row and are favored to win their ninth this season. No names are available on them but Coach Sanderson notes that they have a great tradition of being extremely tough. Don't count out the host Viewmont team either, as they have some strong individuals in their fold. Senior Chris Hansen Han-sen is undefeated this season and will drop a weight to 105 lbs. for this tournament. Another senior Todd Larkin will be one of the favorites in the 167 lbs. class. He too is undefeated. COACH SANDERSON also believes several of his other wrestlers could do well in this event, "Dave Blauer will surprise sur-prise people, he's undefeated . i ii n nuj and is dropping a weight class. Then Brian Spencer and I luck Whitney have wrestled s tme top people already this ear and could win. Craig 'ioberts would definitely be ight up there if he were 100 percent but he's still nursing a football injury and no one really real-ly knows how that will affect him. Another Viking to watch is senior Chris Piatt in the 126 lbs. class but according to Sanderson San-derson it won't be easy. "That class is loaded. Look who's in it. First there's Christen from Mt. View who took second in 3A last year. Then there's Richard of Box Elder who was third in 3A. Sanderson of Pleasant Grove placed fifth and Hunsaker of Spanish Fork was sixth. Piatt has already tied Hunsaker in our dual meet so he can wrestle with them but that weight is loaded." AS FOR the team title Coach Sanderson honestly feels it's up for grabs although his ow n Vikings have a tougher road to go. "Without a heavyweight we need more individual champions." The field is strong w ith some of the best grapplers in the state entered. I : j ? 1 I . - t- ' 1 i , . i t I s - ,': : - s ) 4 4 , ; i 1 : t l ' F?tv r- ' , T"v m v" 1 t, Jn.-V I ..j . ;( :;,4'a;ij)flf v-x ," J A7r1 Viewmont's wrestling coach Steve Sanderson (upper right) relaxes with three of his stars, Craig RolK-rts (lower left), (Jhri! Hansen (upper left) and Chris Piatt as the Y'ikes get ready to host their invitational meet this weekend against some of th( ,top teams in the state. f . A '"'' Things didn't go right for Brad Avis or his Bountiful team last week as Doug Kopeky (on lop) and his Falcons pinned the Braves with their first loss in dual meets. |