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Show . 10 TIM PA N O G OS II M E S - March 19, 2013 ' , - . s- i I; 6,6IMBP1 KABLP ' 9 vly '' ' ' 'T'' ' - --IYW; JcV";. - 1! vac4" -l- :-",';- f'Vtru-- 7' " '- - ' ' ' ; :' f Q A - - v k ' The PGHS State Championship Wrestling Team poses for their championship picture at The Maverick Center. Pleasant Grove High School Wrestling Team picked up an unprecedented fourth consecutive State Title in February. Photo courtesy of Jim Phelon by Lisa Young "Unbre4kable!" That was the term given to this year's Pleasant Grove Wrestling Team by Coach. Brock Moore. The team's determination, dedica-tion and goals were "Unbre4k-able- " as they started their quest to the 4th consecutive state title! It's said that if you reach for the moon, at the very least you'll fall in the stars. The team, led by their captains, set their goals higher than a state title. They wanted to place in the top 10 in the "toughest tour-nament in the nation, Reno", have a combined 3.0 GPA, be the best wrestling team in'PG history, take 1st at the rumble, and take 5A state. They started the season and never looked back, taking 1st in the Iron Man Duals, 2nd at Reno, 1 st at the Rocky Moun-tain Rumble, 1st at the 5A State Duals and the list goes on. With the new sectional tournaments in place, PG qualified 22 wres-tlers out of 28 for the state tour-nament. Outscoring Herriman, the second place team by 168 points, Pleasant Grove walked away with the sectional title with 487 points. On a steady march to the state tournament, PG had to en-dure a three day weigh in format, wrestling a match or maybe two a day for a 16 man tournament. Placing 12th in the tournament helped make their run at the title withl38 lbs Landon Gates 5th, Kaden Sperry 5th, Josh Ander-son 3rd, Koy Wilkinson 6th, Bai-ley Carlson 2nd, Marcos Garcia 3rd, and Austin Taylor 4th. Those who earned indi-vidual state titles were 1 06 lbs Nelson Jones, 113 lbs Kyson Levin, 3 times, 120 lbs Ben Anderson, 2 times, 170 lbs TJ Wind, 2 times, and 285 lbs Zac Dawe, 2 times. Halfway through the semi finals, on day two, the tournament title was won! PG finished the tournament with 289.5 points. The 2nd place Layton team scored 269.5 points. Without tak-ing long to enjoy their re-ward, Brock challenged next year's team to take the state title by breaking 300 points at the state tournament in 2014-201- 5. With 7 Placers and 15 of the 22 state qualified wres-tlers returning, the Pleasant Grove Wrestling Team will dominate again! . .. " A " '' mm ", - I I s I IK X' TJ Wind, 2014 5A State Champion. Photo courtesy of Jim Phelon Zac Dawe, 2014 5A'State Champion. Photo courtesy of Jim Phelon Kyson Levin, becomes a repeal 5A State Champion. Photo courtesy of Jim Phelon I ; r 7H S-y'f- .... ' ."'O .. Nelson Jones, 2014 5A Slate Champion. Photo courtesy of Jim Phelon Ben Anderson throws his opponent to the mat in his bid to win a 2014 Indi-vidual 5A Stale Championship. Photo courtesy of Jim I hclott F 1 , " ..." Wr.v t - " '' '" I . -- .' Hi b Mark Sheffield. Photo courtesy of Jim Phelon Come see what you've been missing. Go Vikings! Forrest Pincock. Photo courtesy of Jim Phelon Riley Court. Photo courtesy ofJim Phelon "Hoops " continued on Page 1 cht scored 11 points and Elijah Glissmeyer and Carter Heslop each added 8 points apiece. In the semifinals, Pleasant Grove found themselves face to face with the last team they faced to close out the regu-lar season; the American Fork Cavemen. On the Viking's last home game of the regular season, after recognizing eight seniors gradu-ating this year never to play here again in this capacity, American Fork soundly thumped the Vi-kings 67 to 56. After the game, Coach McCallister said, "We got beat. That is all that mat-ters." As I walked away from him, I was thinking that wake up calls can erve a good purpose. The problems the Vikings had with American Fork was coming from the same area, the "twin towers," known as 6' 10" Ryan Andrus and 6'9" Ty-ler Rawson. Rebounding and shot blocking can be a problem unless you can hit your shots from 18' or more. Head Coach Doug Meacham told me after they won the last game, "When Pleasant Grove played at our school, they hit every shot they put up. We made an effort, to get in their way tonight and it worked." The Vikings learned from that game and as a result PG beat the Cavemen 68 to 65 in the semifinals. The Vikings got the lead in the third quarter and kept it for the remaining time on the clock. Ryan Andrus scored 26 points and Tyler Rawson added 17 more plus 11 rebounds. The play of the game came with less than three minutes remaining. Mark Sheffield stole the ball as it crossed half court and took it to the house with a thunderous slam. The team and the fans rocked the Huntsman Center in approval. With that win behind them, they focused on the championship game and Lone Peak. This next statement needs a little warm up. Congratula-tions to the wrestling team for winning the state championship again and the Vikettes for taking fourth in state for their danc-ing prowess. If you are a fan or an athlete, you recognize how tough it is to compete at Pleas-ant Grove High School. Besides the talent on the floor, the fans, the music, the noise, the cheerleaders, the overall ambiance, makes it diffi-cult to playperform at your best when all you can hear is com-ing from the Vikings. That being said, when outside competition does win, they have to not only play our team, but also take the crowd out of it. At PG that is not easy. On Valentines Day, Lone Peak came to town for their sec-ond game against the Vikings for the season. I'm pretty sure that, even at that early time, they may have had a on their mind. The game was even at the end of the first period, Knights up at the half, the Vikings came back to within two at the end of the third and out scored them by eight points in the fourth peri-od. A clutch trey from Pincock with time running out, iced the game. Frustration from the Knights was evident as they could not overcome Pleasant Grove's total package. Had we played the state championship game at home, the end result may have been different. Congratulations to Lone Peak High School for winning four state championships in a row. It takes talent and consis-tency. Coach Quincy Lewis has been able to do a great job with his players and they deserve all the credit they receive. On Senior Night, as eight seniors stood on the floor to be recognized for their efforts and success, Coach McCallister added, " I have had these kids on the team for most of three years and I don't remember a better group of young men with the grades they have that have done as well as they have. It has been a pleasure to work with them." In support of that, the UH-SA- A (Utah High School Ath-letic Association) announced their Academic All State Team that included four members of the Viking Basketball Team. Mitch Brown, Hayden Nate Diderickson and Jake Wilson. Four players out of ten on the team. That speaks loudly of the dedication and commitment of these young men to use their time wisely and seize the day. I need to mention that on the Viking Girls Basketball Team, Lillian Evans was also placed on the Girls' Academic All State Team. Congratula-tions to Lillian. The last observation gives a high five to rnember schools in Region 4, highlighting teams from Utah Valley. When the Vi-kings play region gamesmatch-es, they are going up against the best competition in the state. I have heard coaches from sev-eral teams mention that if local schoolsteams were part of other regions, they would be partici-pating in post season play every year. It is a great experience to see these athletes perform lo-cally, then see them play on Saturdays on college teams and someday, maybe on profession-al teams. The talent is here. Scouts are watching and evaluating what we have. Attendance has been good, lets make it great. |