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Show 18 Vemal Express Wednesday, December 27, 1995 r Top Teira spools stoirtos fftex ecoom mroooscle by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer After scanning through the list of top sports related stories in the Basin for 1995, one recurring theme kept making itself obvious the Basin is growing. Each and every time a successful event was staged in the Vernal area, one of the first statements made by organizers was; "it was the biggest ever or, most people we've ever had participate or, most money grossed or, most recognition this event has ever had." You get the idea, 1995 was "the most" for many people, places and things in and around Vernal. While trying to decide which 'happening' rated as the top story, I tried to stay away from conventional guidelines such as 'most money,' 'most profit,' or 'largest crowds.' Those are all significant and important aspects for sure. I was looking for something with a little more personal touch to it. Something unique, that doesn't come along very often. The list includes in-cludes many of the 'traditional' picks which had a positive impact on people's lives here in the Basin and a few 'not so traditional.' My list (which you may or may not agree with), begins with my top story sto-ry pick and descends to my 10th pick. Number 1 Uintah athletics enjoy en-joy best year ever in sports. Surprised? probably not. In an end of the year total, Uintah High School, with 81 points, finished second behind Pineview's 101 as the most successful high school sports program in the state of Utah. The school enjoyed phenomenal Ute J.V. drop two while 'filling in' by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer Following a week off, the Uintah varsity basketball team will end 1995 with a stern test by hosting last week's number one ranked 3A team North Sanpete, this Friday with a 7:30 tipoff. The Utes have shown they can play with the best 3A teams in the state when rested as evidenced by their 49-46 last-second-loss to number one Delta at Delta two weeks ago. North Sanpete features the state's number one three point man in Jason Thompson and one of the most rugged centers in Junior Ioane. Uintah will be back to full strength after sickness and academic academ-ic probation forced them to play at less than 100 percent during their recent road swing. "North Sanpete will be a good test for us. The kids know they are a good 3A team and shouldn't have any problem getting motivated to play their best. The big - ' r i ' 1 1 ? Is -f . 3 Jeremy Sparger makes a futile attempt at stopping Altamont's 6-9 6-9 center TJ Farnsworth during Friday nights game in Vernal. success led by the undefeated state champion football team. Five programs pro-grams finished second in state (boys and girls tennis, boy's soccer, girl's Softball and boy's cross country) while several others placed highly. With over 1,000 students at the school, their families, friends and relatives, this event touched a majority ma-jority of Basin residents lives in a very positive and uplifting way. Number 2 Dinaland Golf Course grand opening. The grand opening of the expanded Dinaland Golf Course June 17 represented the culmination of our community to offer a state of the art course to area residents not to mention the outside out-side drawing power such a facility gives Vernal. The new expanded 18 hole course (which finally closed last Saturday, Dec. 23) insures the continuance of the Vernal Golf Classic and a quality golfing experience experi-ence for local residents. Number 3 Roundup Rodeo. This was one of those 'most and biggest' picks, but who can argue the impact this event has on the area? You don't need to be a cowboy cow-boy to enjoy or appreciate the expanded ex-panded four day event. In its 45th successful running, the Roundup Rodeo brought more cowboys and spectators together than ever before. Rated as one of the top 50 rodeos in the country, the event provided entertainment, en-tertainment, excitement and fun to the entire family a rare occurrence these days. Number 4&5 (tie) Dinosaur Triathlon and Dinotrax Mountain Bike and Downhill Race. It's too bad these two events take place so close to each other because both offer of-fer unique opportunities for Basin question for us is; are we good enough to play with the top teams?" head coach Doug Moon summarized. summa-rized. There was boy's basketball action last week in Vernal when Uintah hosted two Basin basketball teams. Both Tabiona and Altamont visited the Ute lair. As was the case in their first meetings earlier this year, each Uintah program moved up one step for the sake of competition with the sophomores playing the two visitor's visi-tor's J.V. and Uintah's J.V. taking ' on the varsity squads. In their previous meetings at Tabiona and Altamont, the Ute J.V. fell by 20 and 14 respectively. This time around, the team was looking to regain a little respect. "Those were our first two games of the season," sea-son," Coach Frank Barker said, "so these two games served as a good barometer for our improvement up to this point." The one thing Coach Barker ne-See ne-See Basketball page 20 residents to get involved competitively competi-tively on a national scale. The 13th annual triathlon received national attention and recognition by being accepted as one of the qualifiers for the national championships. The event offered more categories and had more participants (153) than ever ev-er before. The Dinotrax event carried car-ried all of the same modems. The event is part of the Cannondale Cup series, with champions qualifying for national and world events, not to mention factory recognition. This year, the downhill was moved to Ute Mountain from Grizzly Ridge with event headquarters based at Red Canyon Lodge. There were 167 racers the largest field ever. Number 6 New Park and Bike Trail. On the surface, this might seem a little trivial on the grand scheme of things, especially compared com-pared to the other events. But a tiny peak inside offers the true impact of this event. The Park creation represents repre-sents several different entities working work-ing together to achieve something for the common good of local residents. resi-dents. The Bureau of Reclamation, Uintah Parks and Recreation and the Water Conservancy District pooled their resources both physical and mental to make, this park happen. The result will be another choice for area families to enjoy local outdoor recreation together. The park, located locat-ed at 78 west and 3325 north (just south of Steinaker Reservoir), includes in-cludes a non-motorized access trail running along the Steinaker Service Canal. Number 7 Recreational services provided by the Uintah Recreation Association. This should be the run away number one pick, but there is no single story or event to tag. The local entity provides year-round recreational opportunities to just about anyone who wakes up in the morning breathing. The neatest thing about the Association is that if there is an interest and they don't have a program to address that interest, in-terest, they'll do everything in their power to create a program. The Association has touched just about everyone from ages three to 103 in one way or another and hopefully will continue to do so for a very long time. Number 8 Demolition Derby. The Demolition Derby has become a Basin favorite. It is the largest attended at-tended single day event in the Uintah Basin and its popularity continues con-tinues to grow. For pure family entertainment, en-tertainment, this event is unparalleled. unparal-leled. Number 9 Vernal Golf Classic and Pro Am. Here is an annual event which draws professionals and amateurs together for three days of competition. The event signifies Vernal's place as a community with a quality golf course and destination point for state and national travelers (tourists). This year's event featured the largest field of competitors and promises to continue growing with the expansion to 18 holes of the Dinaland Golf Course. Number 10 Western Park expansion. ex-pansion. The Western Park, already a quality facility providing a multitude multi-tude of recreational opportunities to area residents expanded this year to allow even more usage to a wider variety of users. 4-H, scouting, barrel bar-rel racing, mud bogs, car shows, tennis tournaments, you name it, the Western Park can handle it. The fa cility continues to show its flexibility flexibili-ty by hosting Uintah High School's tournament of Champions wrestling tournament Jan. 5-6. Uintah Recreation Ski Program The Uintah Recreation Association is now accepting registration regis-tration for the 1996 ski program. The ski program will be traveling to Wolf Mountain Ski Resort this winter win-ter and the program will run six consecutive weeks and will begin Saturday, Jan. 13 and run through Saturday, Feb. 17. Cost for the program includes ski lessons, lift passes and transportation. transporta-tion. Busses will leave each Saturday morning from the Vernal Middle School at 5:30 a.m. and will return to the school at approximately approximate-ly 7 p.m. Registrations will be accepted on a first come basis and will be taken at the recreation office located on the third floor of the statecounty building or for more information, call 781-5486. V Y " T ' Lit . , j- V '"in i - I n Historic Ute lookout tower presided over this year's Dinotrax Downhill race on Ute Mountain. Drop 32-31 match Matmen nipped by Cougars by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer High School athletics. Nothing elicits such a pure, emotional response re-sponse from those involved as competition com-petition between rival schools in any particular arena of competition. When it comes to wrestling, the budding rivalry between Uintah and Union might just be the pinnacle of the emotional mountain. If you happened to be at last Thursday's duo between Uintah and Union in Roosevelt, you know exactly ex-actly what I'm talking about. In describing de-scribing Uintah's chilling, down to the wire 32-31 loss, head coach Greg Stensgard was somewhat philosophical. "You never feel good about a loss. But I would have to say I feel as good as you can after losing to a rival. The matches were all intense and exciting and for the most part, the kids wrestled very well. I was a little surprised by Union's stamina. Their crowd really revved them up and carried them through. There was a lot of adrenaline flowing all night." Adrenaline might be an understatement. under-statement. The Cougar gym with standing room only was literally rocking on its foundations from beginning be-ginning to end and both wrestling squads did nothing to temper their enthusiasm. "We anticipated a tight match from beginning to end and that's exactly what we got. Union has a tough squad with some talented talent-ed guys who come after you. They never quit and that proved to be the ultimate difference," Stensgard said. Giving the crowd every pennies worth of nail-biting drama, Union trailed early, led mid-way through the match and trailed late before , & Mike Glines with standing room Tlf. r 1 JL. ii ' LAV X-4 1 7, 4wtti Clint McKeachnie momentarily silences the Union crowd after his pin victory at 189, but it wasn't enough as Utes fell 32-31 . grabbing the victory with clutch pins in the final two matches. I feel for Chet (Stewart) and Mike (Glines)," Stensgard explained. "This was Chet's first match ever and to have to come into a situation like this in your first varsity high school match at 215 must have been totally numbing. In Mike's situation, situa-tion, he steps on the mat at 275 with the home crowd going completely hysterical in every close match. The pressure on him is astronomical." Trailing 31-21 entering the two final fi-nal matches, Union needed pins in both to pull out the victory. Stewart faced the Cougars Heath Cook at 215. With 42 seconds left in the first 7 2t only crowd looking on, battles to 0 4:;?'-' ' f I round, Cook electrified the home crowd with the pin. With his team up 31-27, heavyweight Mike Glines was well aware of his predicament. Win or lose by anything other than a pin and his team wins the duo. "It was so loud in their gym, I could hardly hear myself think. My heart was pounding pretty good, but I really re-ally can't remember specifics about the match. He was a good wrestler who beat me, that's all I really remember," re-member," Glines said when asked how he felt before, during and after the match. See Wrestling page 19 keep off his back at 275. |