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Show One-point victories or losses are quite common in the game called basketball and one such example is the Uintah hoopsters' one point, 68-67, loss to the Cyprus Pirates, but it is really rare that a wrestling tournament is decided by one point. One of those rare occasions in the world of wrestling tournaments took place Saturday at the Vernal Tournament of ChamDions as the Uintah Utes sgueezed by Rock Springs by one point, 135 to 134, for first place honors. The Vernal Tournament of Champions Cham-pions was filled with countless key contests con-tests for the Uintah Utes wrestling team. Uintah's Kay Smuin, 155 pounds, was involved in three key matches for the Utes. Kay Smuin toppled Mike Beck of Green River, Wyoming, in his first match of the tournament, 2-1 in overtime. over-time. Beck jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first round due to a takedown and a three-point near fall. However, Smuin rallied and nabbed a 5-5 tie with a rovprsal and a three-noint near fall in the third round. Smuin pocketed a reversal in the overtime and Beck nabbed an escape, which made the final score, Smuin, 2 and Beck, 1. Kay Smuin shocked the crowd with another amazing rally in a second round contest against Robert Kresge of Orem. Smuin was behind by two points in the match, but he nabbed a three-point three-point near fall in the final seconds to win the contest, 5-4. Smuin was thumped by Brian Ashmore, Ash-more, 9-2, in the championship battle, but the most important thing was how he lost. The match wasn't very old before Smuin was taken down and was placed into a pinning situation. A pin by Rock Springs in the 155 pound match and a regular decision in the heavyweight contest would have given the Wyoming team a one point win over Uintah in the Vernal Tournament. However, Kay Smuin refused to be pinned as he strained, groaned, tw isted and survived having his shoulder blades inches away from the mat in the first round. Smuin also, escaped from a near fall in the second round, and ended up losing due to a decision. Uintah's Kay Smuin staged two rallies in his first two wins and rallied to keep from getting pinned in the championship match, and without those three amazing comebacks, Uintah would have finished in second place instead of first place - Probably the ky match to the win as ' far as the fans were concerned was Matt Hacking's victory over Ron Stassinos in the 138 pound. The Hacking-Stassinos was a battle royal, and each wrestler gained one point to force it into overtime. Hacking was exhausted ex-hausted going into the overtime, but he kept fighting for takedowns in the first round and escapes in the second round and controlled Stassinos in the third round. Hacking was awarded the match on a referee's decision. This is another match, which proved that Uintah won and Rock Springs lost just by a hair. Another key win was delivered to the Uintah Ute team by Billy Bedell. He had never beaten J D. Adams and he had dropped two setbacks to tlx Steamboat Springs tussler in December, and Bedell was pitted against Adams in the consolation finals. The Utes won the tournament title by-one by-one point and Bedell nipped Adams by-one by-one point. Bedell gained an escape in the second round for a 1-0 win. If Ken Cobbs would have pinned Harvey Pollock, the Utes would have tied Nampa, Idaho at 21-21 in a dual meet, Thursday. However, Cobbs was unable to nab tlx1 pin and Nampa won by three points, 21-18. The second time Cobb met Pollock, which was at the Vernal Tournament, he made up for his fall failure ns he pinned the Nampa wrestler in tlx-heavyweight tlx-heavyweight semi-finals. Cobbs fell into Harvey Pollock's dual meet role. If Cobbs got pinned then Rock Springs would win tlx" tournament. Uintah's Cobbs came close to beating Rock Springs' Fred Balh as he was defeated by only two points, but prevented tlx1 Wyoming matmnn from gaining n pin. Another key contest for the Uintah Ules was Ron Horrocks' 8 7 win over Gary Robbins of Skyline in the 105 pound encounter. Uintah suffered a shocker and Rock Springs' hopes of catching the Ules in the first place nice were brightened when a Uintah tussler defeated a Uinlah tussler in the 9H pound contest. Rock Springs' Binilxi l 'hick at 119 pounds was named as the most outstanding out-standing wrestler in the lighter weights and Brian Ashmore, also from Rock Springs, was named as the most outstanding out-standing wrestler in the upix-r weights. Stcamlxiat Springs' Jtx' Ramunno had the fastest pin. However, the most outstanding wrestler in (lie lighter weights should have lecn Uintah's Brelt Brown. Brown wasn't even n member of Uintah's varsity team. He Is on the Ules' second team and tlx' only reason he was able to compete In the tournament was because Rock Springs didn't have n 911 pounder. All Brown did wus crush Green River, Wyoming's Sieve Ortega, 14 3; pin Mike Barber of Sleamlxml Springs and topple the 3 A stale 911 pound champion from Utah, Josh Reynolds of Uinlah, 7 to 2, for first ' place in Die 911 pound class at the Vernal Tournament of Champions. |