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Show Usually the official scorer is right, but in the case of the 3-A State Wrestling Wrestl-ing Tournament at Weber State College in Ogden on February 12, 13 and 14 the official scorer was wrong. Newspapers throughout the state of Utah had the final score as Tooele, first, 137; Box Elder, second, 132' and Uintah, Uin-tah, third 123'. However, the Uintah total was four points short. The Utes had 115'2 points before the 98 pound championship between Uintah's Uin-tah's Brett Brown and Box Elder's Jim Smoot. Each first place victory was worth four points. A major decision was worth half a point and a superior decision deci-sion was worth an additional point. A pin would give a team two extra points. Uintah's Brown toppled Smoot, 4 to 1, for the 98 pound championship and the Utes' Pat Jenkins thumped Pleasant Grove's Paul Phelon for the 145 pound crown. Uintah's Randy Smuin won the 155 pound crown when he toppled Jody Nemelka of west, 6 to 1. Three first place victories add up to 12 points and Uintah's third place total should have been 1274 points, but the official scorer forgot to add Smuin's four points for first place to the Uintah total and the final score had the Utes at 1234 points when in fact they finished with 1274 points. Now it is time for the "if" and "buts" part of this column. Sports fans have all heard the famous saying of: "If 'if and buts' were candy and nuts, we would all have a Merry Christmas." If Josh Reynolds would have defeated Kirt Palmer of Tooele in the 119 pound championship match and if Pat Jenkins had been awarded a pin in his title match at 145 pound against Phelon then the Utes would have won the championship champion-ship by half a point. Uintah would have finished in first place at 1334 points and Tooele would have finished in second se-cond place at 133 points. Box Elder would have netted third place at 1324 counters. Uintah would have beaten Tooele by half a point and downed Box Elder by one point. A win by Reynolds would have been worth four points and a pin by Jenkins would have given Uintah Uin-tah two more points. A victory by Reynolds at 119 pounds and no pin by Jenkins at 145 pounds would have given Uintah a third place total of 1314 points. Tooele would have placed first at 133 and Box Elder would have finished half a point short of first place in second place at 1324 points. Reynolds jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second round on a neutral, but Palmer tied up the contest at 1-1 when he was awarded a neutral with five seconds left in the third round. The point wasn't awarded until the match referee and a referee on the side of the mat discussed the situation. Uintah's Reynolds acquired a 1-0 lead in the second round of overtime on a stalling point, but Palmer gained a reversal in the third round to take a 2 1 lead. Reynolds acquired a neutral to tie up the contest at 2 2, but Palmer, who had suffered losses to Reynolds in a dual meet and at the region meet, was selected as the winner of the match when criteria was used to determine the winner in overtime. A reversal is ranked higher than a stalling point and a neutral. The third time was the charm for Palmer. Jenkins was behind 5 to 1 going into the final round of his championship match with Phelon, but he exploded for nine points and won the match, 10 to 5. Jenkins pocketed a reversal and three near falls in the third round. Jenkins came close to gaining a pin as he was awarded a three-point near fall and many people in the arena thought that Jenkins pinned Phelon. However the "if" and "buts" are just "if" and "buts" and Uintah placed third at 1274 points and Box Elder netted second place at 1324 and Tooele garnered first at 137 points. Box Elder finally finished ahead of Uintah in a state tournament, but they failed to place ahead of Tooele and garnered second se-cond for the third year in a row. Brown, Uintah's 98 pound champion, had only two points scored against him in four matches. Brown recorded two shutouts as he blanked Vince Kanngac of South, 11 to 0 and downed Don Jenkins, Springvillc, 6 0. Brown gained revenge for his only loss of the season (9-8 at the region meet) to David Vialpando of Cyprus ns he blasted Vialpando, 14 to 1. Brown downed Smoot for the first place crown by the score of 4 to 1. Uintah's Brown outscored his opponents, 35 to 2. Brown finished with a 31-1 mark. Uintah's 155 pounder, Smuin, had only on-ly three ponts scored against him in four matches. He blanked Peter Knight of Springvillc, 20 to 0 and crushed Abe Allen of Spanish Fork, 11 to 1. Smuin downed Craig Tate of Tooele, 5 to 1 and thumped Nemelka, 6 to 1, in the battle for first place. Sometimes a little luck is needed to win a state tournament title and Tooele was lucky at the right times and placed first In the tournament as Palmer was declared the winner of a 2 2 overtime match In the 119 pound championship contest, Kye Jensen won the 126 pound championship contest when he gained a neutral with 30 seconds left in the third overtime for n 1 0 win and Mike Smith won the 132 pound title when he gained a takedown for a 7 5 win in the final Hccondfl of the third round. |