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Show 14 Vernal Express Wednesday, January 3, 1996 21 teams competing this weekend estem tournament of Champions by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer Tiiis Friday and Saturday, Jan. 5-6, 5-6, Vernal will be treated to the start of a new tradition as Uintah High School's annual Tournament of Champions wrestling tournament '.tkcs up a new residence at the Western Park Arena. The brain child of head wrestling coach Greg Stensgard, this year's event will mark the culmination of a combined community effort to nuke the tournament a reality at the park. "The idea is to revitalize the status and quality of the tournament to its rightful place as a premier hiyh school event," Coach Stensgard said. "The cooperation and work put into the preparation for the new sight has been unbelievable. unbeliev-able. Everyone has caught the vision vi-sion of turning the Tournament of Champions into a nationally recognized recog-nized event which will have an impact im-pact on high school national rankings." rank-ings." Among those who have helped, Stensgard pointed out the extensive contributions of the Chamber of Commerce, Tournament Directors Rob DeCol and Levi Smuin along with Mike . sh " :j t : Clown Tommy Charter goes through his 'exploding john' routine, much to the delight and wonderment of the near packed house. Bull riders gain split with bulls by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer The Western Park Arena was the sight of of "The Battle of The Bulls' last Friday and Saturday night. If you weren't in attendance, you missed some of the finest bull riding ever at the Indoor Arena. Stock Contractor Slash C Rodeos, owned by Bill Crittenden out of Francis. Utah must have been feeding feed-ing their stock high octane food prior pri-or to la.M weekends event because several of the ill-tcmpcrcd critters flat exploded out of the chutes, and iln-y weren't satisfied just ridding If Bunfighterctowfi Keith Scott movei in quickly to get the bull turned Park to host Lewis, Brad Haslem, Marie Yoder and Western Park Director Dirk Hatch. But it hasn't been easy. Coach Stensgard began working on the idea last spring. First he had to bring together local entities and then begin the process of getting the word out to successful programs early enough they could make room on their 1996 schedules, and Coach Stensgard didn't want just any program. pro-gram. "We want to turn the tournament into one of the premier high school tournaments in the country, one that the best teams will want to be a part of because of the level of competition," competi-tion," Stensgard said, "this first year will be kind of a dry run for everyone, every-one, but compared to recent Tournament of Champions, this year's competition will be much higher and tougher." Indeed, Stensgard has contracted 21 teams for competition including four returning state championship programs and a host of individual champions. Several programs that couldn't commit their entire team 'are sending top individuals to the point that a 32 man draw will be themselves of the cowboys on their backs. Several times over the two day event the bulls also took out clowns, pick-up men and . chute hands. Even the judges were not exempt ex-empt as the bulls chased them over the fences time and again. "Wild bunch of bulls," one rider mumbled after landing square on his head, and he made the 8 seconds! The show also featured barrel racing, rac-ing, clown acts with father two year old son act Tommy and Waccy Charters and the ever popular popu-lar Mutton Busiin'. "I was im- See Bulls page 15 1 o used in each weight classification. Returning championship teams include in-clude Piute and South Summit from Utah, Butte, Montana and Lyman, Wyoming. Other top teams participating partici-pating include Brighton, currently ranked number one in 5A and responsible re-sponsible for ending Orem's 52 match win streak a few weeks ago. Union, Payson, Rock Springs, Wyo., Fruita, Colo, and North Summit, currently ranked number one in 2A. Wrestling action begins this Friday at 3 p.m. There will be three rounds Friday one championship and two wrestle-backs using eight mats. Saturday, action begins at 9 a.m. with quarter finals and wrestle-back wrestle-back rounds three and four to noon. At 1:30 p.m., session three begins with the semi's and wrestle back Top ranked Emery next Basketball team drops 'hard fought' last-second decision by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer It wasn't supposed to end the way it did last Friday night when Uintah hosted third ranked North Sanpete in boy's basketball; it just wasn't in the script. After all, this was the Utes first home game after a tortuous tortu-ous 10 game road swing. They had dropped a couple of last second contests on that swing. So when crunch time came Friday night, the right thing to happen would have been for the home town boys to pull out the last second victory. Only problem was, the Hawks weren't paying any attention to what should have been as they emerged with a heated 62-57 decision. "We had our chances. The kids played hard and hustled the entire game. We just keep shooting ourselves our-selves in the foot at the worst times," head coach Doug Moon stated. That can be translated into; "we need to take, care of the ball better and make our free throws down the stretch." With the Utes holding a five point lead after three consecutive steals and layups by Dave Lawson and just under three minutes left in the game, it appeared Uintah had all the momentum and a victory over this week's top ranked team in 3A. But the same problem which had plagued the team throughout the game came back to take its worst toll at just the wrong time. After a good defensive stand, Jeff Jaussi sprinted down the court, beating the Hawk defenders back for an apparent appar-ent easy layup which would have kept Uintah up by five he never got the chance because a North Sanpete player caught Jeff in midair mid-air and flagrantly shoved him, sending send-ing the Utc senior forward hard into the wall behind the basket. After the pushing and shoving had been bro- away from the chute. ij.; - vx. , ulo ' XV 14 J ,r .1 nnwOTli. i .... j 1 :??rrrr dri. I 11 i'.fi .1 A MUST ? I ,""- The Western Park Arena will rounds five and six. Third, fifth and seventh place matches will follow. Session four begins at 7 p.m. for first and second places. Special medals cast just for this event by Brad McClellan of Dry Fork Saddle will be presented to places 2-8 with set medals in plaques for the champions. cham-pions. As for the Utes, Coach Stensgard I'1 Phoio by Scott Merrill Jeff Jaussi goes up to block the shot of 6'-6" 270 pound Hawk center Junior loane Friday. Jeff led all scorers with 1 8 points but it wasn't enough as Utes dropped another heartbreaker 62-57. ken up by the officials and the fans had been ushered back into the stands, Jaussi was awarded two flagrant fla-grant foul free throws and Uintah was given the ball back. Uintah was unable to capitalize on the situation though, after missing both free throws and turning the ball over on a bad pass. "That sequence after the flagrant foul really epitomized the game. We have a chance to go up by nine and basically put the game away, but couldn't take advantage," Coach Moon said. North Sanpete's Justin Thompson the 3A three point leader who (he Utes had held to just Coed Volleyball The Uintah Recreation Association is now accepting registration regis-tration for the upcoming Adult Coed Volleyball League which will begin play January 16. League will be played on the following fol-lowing nighty A League on Wednesday night and B League on Thursday night at the Vernal Middle School. Cost for the league is $20 per player and team registration wilt be taken at the recreation office lv caicd on the third floor of the SlaicCounty building. There will be a coaches meeting for all teams wanting to play on Wednesday, January 10 at 7 p m. in the commission chambers located on the second floor of the StateCounty building. For more information in-formation please call the recreation office at 781-5486. be the new home for tournament. feels the team has an excellent shot at winning their own tournament. "We are a better tournament team right now than duo because we have four or five wrestlers who are at the top in their respective classifications. classifica-tions. Of course anything can happen hap-pen and there are always upsets, but we have to be one of the favorites based on our performance this year." . . i V... ' -I. t f three points the entire game was fouled twice on the Hawk's next two possessions and calmly sank ' i'jt)? V:- WtiJ:'i Swingman Davo Lawson lays another easy basket up. Lawson sparked Uintah to fourth quarter lead with his hustling steals. Bowhunter League The Split Mt. Archers will again be hosting a Bow Hunter League,. The league will be held each Wednesday night at the Vernal Rod and Gun Club. Shooting will start at 7 p.m. and will be inside. You do not have to be a member to participate. partici-pate. Each Wednesday in December will be a practice and tuneup night. The league will start Jan. 3 for scores and prizes. There will be classes for everyone. Another upcoming event will be the 3rd Annual Split Mt. Archers Indoor 3-D Shoot. This year there will be a target shoot hosted by the Rocky Mt. Archers of Roosevelt. This shoot will be March 2-3. Watch for flyers for times and more information. The Split Mt. Archers are a nonprofit non-profit club who support archery and wildlife. We encourage archers to take an active part with us, for the betterment of our sport. For more information call 789-2283, 789-4272 789-4272 or 789-2769. 1 JZ- all four shots, giving the Hawks the See Basketball page 15 b HI? nl Ptxxo by &grgi Mtne .4 i, |