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Show 1 The Vernal Tournament of Champions Cham-pions was filled with close heartbreaking heartbreak-ing losses and narrow escapes to the world of victory. One of the most disappointing disap-pointing setbacks for the Uintah fans was suffered by Josh Reynolds, Uintah's Uin-tah's 119 pounder. Reynolds defeated Gary Dallman of Green River in the Rock Springs Tournament Tour-nament championship contest, but Dallman gained revenge for the loss in the Vernal Tournament of Champions. The Utes' Reynolds had a 4-0 lead in the third round due to a takedown in the first round and a reversal in the third round. However, Reynolds slipped and Dallman gained a reversal. It appeared that Reynolds was going to end as a 4-2 winner, but Dallman turned Reynolds over and gained a two-point near fall at the buzzer, which placed the contest into in-to overtime. Reynolds was pinned by Dallman in the first round of the overtime. over-time. Another heartbreaking loss was suffered suf-fered by Randy Smuin of Uintah in the 155 pound championship match. Smuin had a 3 to 2 lead early in the third round, but Mike Beck of Green River gained a takedown and a three-point near fall with a minute to go to win the first place crown by the score of 7 to 4. Smuin, a junior, lost the 1980 champions in the Vernal Tournament of Champions in the final five seconds as a sophomore. Jim Peacock of Preston, Idaho was ahead of Chris Stanger of Box Elder in the 155 pound battle for third place in the Vernal Tournament of Champions and was putting his opponent into a pinning pin-ning situation when he was reversed, placed on his back and pinned by Stanger. Frank Atwood of Uintah tried his best to keep from being knocked out of the tournament in the second round, Friday, Fri-day, but it wasn't good enough as he was defeated by Alan Taylor of Mountain Moun-tain View, 4 to 1, in overtime. Taylor dropped Atwood for a takedown in the first round, but Atwood gained a neutral to narrow Taylor's lead to 2 to 1. Taylor gained a reversal in the third round for a 4 to 1 lead, but Atwood refused to give up as he acquired ac-quired an escape and a takedown to tie up the contest at 4-4. Atwood didn't have any more miracles left in his wrestling suitcase as Taylor dropped him for a takedown in the first round and gained escapes in the second and third round. Atwood pocketed an escape in the third round to make the final score, 4 to 1, in favor of Taylor; The wrestler who probably had the most dissappointing setbacks in the tournament was Lee Gonzales of Rock Springs. Gonzales had a 3 to 2 lead in the semi-final contest in the 112 pound division battle with David Gentrv of Uintah, but Gonzales was called for stalling with eight seconds left and the contest was tied up at 3-3. Gonzales was behind by one point with ten seconds left in the overtime, but he gained a neutral to tie up the match at 3-3. However, Gentry won the encounter due to a referees' decision. Fernando Flores of Green River was in complete control for most of the battle bat-tle with Gonzales for third place as he had a 10 to 2 lead. However, Gonzales flipped Flores over and had the Green River wrestler on his back in the closing clos-ing seconds of the match. Gonzales gained only a three-point near fall as he didn't have enough time left to nail Flores to the mat. If the contest would have lasted a few more seconds, Gonzales Gon-zales would have had a fall. One of the most outstanding matches was turned in by sophomore, Pat Jenkins, Uintah's 145 pounder. His opponent op-ponent was Mike Hamel of Green River, who captured first place in the Rock Springs Tournament. Jenkins was called for stalling in the first round and Hamel gained a neutral in the first round for a 2-0 lead. Jenkins tied up the contest at 2-2 with a takedown, which forced the contest into overtime. Hamel gained a 1-0 lead in the first round due to a neutral, but Jenkins nabbed nab-bed a 2-1 lead when he dropped Hamel for a takedown. Hamel tied up the contest con-test when stalling was called on Jenkins, but Jenkins won the championship champion-ship due to a referees' decision. Jenkins is the first Uintah sophomore since Josh Reynolds in 1979 to capture a Vernal Tournament of Champions crown. The only undefeated wrestler left on the Uintah varsity squad is Brett Brown at 15-0. Uintah's Brown gained his 15th win of the season when he toppled Box Elder's Jim Smoot, 4 to 2, in the 98 pound championship contest. Uintah had a number of independent wrestlers, who won matches in the Vernal Ver-nal Tournament of Champions. Brent Morrill, 105, toppled Chris Barton of Skyline, 10 to 4, in a consolation match and Keith Campbell, 112, blanked Dan Morrill of Viewmont, 1 to 0. Seymore Bedoni, 119, defeated Cory Doak of Rock Springs in the first round and was downed by Uintah's varsity tussler, Reynolds, 6 to 1. Russ Anderson, iss' toppled Doug Talbot of Preston, 11 to 2. Brian Ashmore, Rock Springs, pocketed his third straight Vernal Tournament Tour-nament of Champions crown when he defeated John Beckstead of Preston, 4 to 1. Ashmore also pocketed first place crowns in 1979 and 1980. |