OCR Text |
Show -- - j- . v ' fir- " i j , . ' - J . .""-" 1 T - v" . . . i ,,r .. Jr : -1 - r ' ' x',t " j 'lt " ' , w''l ' - y 'f, , : kv 0; V X t ' 'v. L:l i , o " L-- - C . THE NUMBER ONE HEAVYWEIGHT wrestler on the Uintah High School tussling team. Ken Cobbs, left extends his hand not in an act of friendship, frien-dship, but as an act of war during the battle By Aldon Rachele Some people might think the Uintah Utes were lucky to win the 1980 3-A State Championship at the University of Utah's Special Events Center in Salt Lake City, Saturday. No Way!!!! The wrestling Utes from Vernal earned their 14th state crown as all ten wrestlers, Brett Brown, 98; Ron Horrocks, 105; Foston Olivers, 112; Jeff Good, 119; Matt Hacking, 138; Randy Smuin, 145; Kay Smuin, 155, Billy Bedell, 167; Art Daley, 185 and Ken Cobbs, heavyweight, delivered points to the Utes. Actually other wrestlers, Dale Tominaga, West, 98; Todd Grover, Bear River, 119; Jim Bell, Box Elder, 145; Jeff Roylance. Springville, heavyweight and James Larkin, Viewmont. 138, received the gift of luck. Luck passed Uintah Utes, Brett Brown, 98; Jeff Good, 119; Randy Smuin, 145; Ken Cobbs, heavyweight, by in championship contests and lady luck failed to kiss Matt Hacking in his semi-final contest. Calls and some lack of calls prevented the Uintah Utes from nabbing championship crowns, and a call at the buzzer took a one-point win . away from Matt Hacking in a semifinal semi-final contest with James Larkin and forced it into overtime. Larkin won the contest due to a referee's decision. "It's really sad because we don't change our style of wrestling. Each kid has his own style of wrestling and it gets down to the finals and they expect us to change our style. There wasn't a Din in all the championship matches, but they expected us to pin. I thought all four of our championship matches were decided on very controversial calls that happened to go against us," stated Uintah High School wrestling coach, Chuck Henry. with Jeff Roylance of Springville. Cobbs was denied a state championship when Roylance was given an escape late in the third round. "Our one goal is to win the state title as a team and not as individuals. If we win an individual state championship that's a plus for the boy and a great honor," said Henry. "This year West and some 4-A schools moved into the 3-A 3-A class. The pre-tourney favorite was West High School, but you can never count out a Vernal team at the state tourney." Davis High School's Frank Thompson Thomp-son was named as the outstanding coach in the 3-A meet. "I don't go out to the tournament to win the coach of the year award, I go out there to win the state tournament," said Chuck Henry. "If they want to find a coach of the year they should look at Vernal Junior High and Leon Smuin." Uintah had seven seniors, two sophomores and one junior in the state tournament. Brett Brown, 98; Jeff Good, 119; Randy Smuin, 145; Ken Cobbs, heavyweight and Matt Hacking, 138, had only one loss each in the tourney. Brown, Good, Smuin and Cobbs finished with 3-1 records, and Matt Hacking posted a 4-1 record. Ron Horrocks, 105, had a 4-2 record and Foston Olivers, 112, posted a mark of 3-2. 3-2. Billy Bedell, 167; Art Daley, 185 and Kay Smuin, 155, won one match each for the Utes. "You expect seniors to be your leaders, but at Uintah High School we are just one team of seniors, juniors and sophomores," remarked Chuck Henry. Three sophomores, Jeff Good, 119; Randy Smuin, 145, Uintah and Jess Christen, 112, Provo, reached the championship iinals. All three were defeated in close matches. "Any time three sophomores can get in the finals of a state tournament credit has to be given to the junior high coach. I give a lot of credit to coach Leon Smuin for the job he does with his wrestlers at Vernal Junior High," stated Henry. "Our wrestling program begins in November and most of the tusslers finish wrestling in August." The Uintah Utes didn't luck out and win the state title. They won the crown due to hard work that enabled them to win 26 out of 41 matches in the tournament tour-nament for 63 percent. Many tournaments tour-naments are decided in the championship cham-pionship round, but the Utes because of their outstanding team depth didn't have to worry about winning the crown in the f iruils as they won it in the battles for third, fourth, fifth and sixth places Saturday afternoon. The Utes won 26 out of 37 matches before the championship cham-pionship finals. The Utes were going for individual honors in the championship finals, but they were unlucky and their opponents were lucky. However, all the Uintah Utes were first place winners as the Utes captured the state crown. "We peaked again at the state tournament due to two-a-day practices. We started going two-a-days a week before the Green River Tournament. The two teams that could go hard for six minutes were Uintah and Box Elder, and both got trophies. When we wrestle Box Elder we have to work extra hard because they are in good shape just like we are," commented Chuck Henry, Uintah High School wrestling coach. " '!. " .... - . . , "-f ' i 1 UINTAH'S SOPHOMORE GRAPPLER, Randy Smuin left, clashes with senior, Jim Bell of Box Elder, Bell won the title when he edged Smuin, 8 to 6. Uintah won the state crown in the consolation con-solation matches before the finals. |