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Show Rodney Rientjes wrestled intelligent and it Nathan Hinckleys dream of being a state champ came true. He went the entire season without losing a match. earned him a state title. Both Take State Championships Mister Thek Art that point on in the consolation that w ere questionable losses because of officiating. M. Hansen Leads His Group To High Finish BOY IS 132 stacked," said Brian after- wards, Either Im moving someplace else or I better get a lot better. Next year its Hodgkins returning again along with Clearfield's By KEITH DUNCAN Journal Sports Kopecky, Hillcrests Neff and Granger's Simon. LAYTON - Mike Hansen has done it again. Brent Higgs is a classic individual according to Hansen. Hell fight anyone to the bitter FOR THE eighth consecutive year the end," said Hansen. Higgs finished fourth as a wizard of Layton High wrestling has mustered junior at 138. Brent won his first two matches up his forces and seen that his Lancers have against West Jordan and Olympus but was placed themselves among the elite top 10 in the beaten by the eventual state champion in state. Brighton's Perry Skudlarczyk. Coach Hansen Over the past weekend at the Dee Events called the Brighton champion one of the best Center in Ogden. Hansen had five of his Lan- athletes on the Bengal team. cers place and as a team the squad finished in eighth place, just 9 points out of fifth place. THOSE RETURNING for more action next year will be Brent Whitesides. Bailey, Higgs, AND ASIDE from the impressive finish as a Dennis Wienze, Larry Rynders and Rod team. Hansen is also as proud as a brand-neArrant. father with the performance of senior Rodney Rientjes who won four straight matches and won the state championship at 19 pounds. Rodney's title means a lot to our program. It means that even though wrestling is getting tougher and tougher every year, a guy in our ranks can still win it all if he puts his mind and heart into it." said Hansen. -- 1 Rientjes Pair THE OTHER four Laytonites that placed in the 1984 event include two seniors in Eric Hyde (112) and Nicky Romero (98). Two juniors also got the job done in Brian Bailey at 132 and Brent Higgs at 138. It was oh so close for Romero but yet so far away as the Layton senior won his first two matches against Brighton and Granger. That put him in the semis against Box Elder's Ken Smoot, whom Nicky had beaten before. But this time it was Smoot who prevailed with a 2 win and it was he who went on to the championship bout. Romero then came through the rest of the consolation bracket to place fifth after beating Brighton's Dave Cloward for the second time. Like Father, Like Son By KEITH DUNCAN Journal Sports 5-- "NICKY HAD a chance to be there but didn't get up for that match against Smoot. But this year I couldn't have asked for any more from him." said Hansen. "My heart kinda bleeds for Eric Hyde." said Hansen. "It was the toughest weight (112) in the state with two state champions ahead of him and with Clay Carter also in the picture. we just ended up on But Hyde never gave-ithe bottom at the wrong time. OGDEN - Rodney Rientjes is just about what government needs these days, a guy who makes decisions, sticks with it and eventually succeeds. -- THOUGH THE Layton High senior's battlefield was far from government topics, wrestling it was and wrestling is where he has just made a significant name for himself. It was last Saturday evening at the Dee Events Center on the campus of Weber State College that Rientjes turned back Alta's Tuckchamer Nipko to win the 1984 a of score pionship by 4-- A 5-- 6-- 3-- 2. class was FINISHING fifth in the Brian has much as Brian ability Bailey. junior as anyone in the state but during the tournament he found himself getting overpowered at times which hurt him." said Hansen. Brian won his first match on Thursday by beating David Winklekottcr of Granite. But that's when Brian met with Brighton's Kris Hodgkins. That match was extremely close as p who was a Kris won only from matches close last year. Brian lost some d 4-- state-runneru- Hearts To Bleed Too By KEITH DUNCAN Journal Sports THE DECISION though, which was completely Rodney's and no one elses. was whether to battle it out at 12 pounds or move up to the heavier class. After finishing third in the category as a junior. Rientjes had his choice as a senior. "My decision was to go for it at 119 and make wrestling a little funner in the process," said Rodney after his sweet win. I chose not to cut weight which I had done a great deal of my sophomore and junior years. LES RIENTJES, Rodney's father, who was ready to greet his son with a loving bearhug after the title match, uniquely was a wrestler himself in high school. The real uniqueness though stems from the fact that Mr. Rientjes while wrestling in the state of Washington competed at 105 pounds as ajunior and just like his son, claimed third place that year. I'll admit that I let Rod know of the valuable lesson I learned my senior year when I stayed at 12 and because I cut so much weight I ended up getting sick and missing state all together my final year. I literally ruined myself. 105-pou- 1 BUT IN ACTUALITY, Rod made up his own mind along with some tips from his Continued next page the extent of the scoring. As Shawn himself stated. 1 made three mistakes and he ( Lucero) took advantage of every one. Usually those kind of mistakes won't hurt, but they did this time. As Dickson said. He tried to do the things we thought he could do, but they didn't work. "The mistakes were sloppy. said Shawn, as soon as I'd made the mistakes 1 knew was in trouble. PRIOR TO THE meet 1 wasn't nervous at all which may sound surprising. All knew is that 1 could beat him. but he outwrestled me and won the match. Shawns Davis wrestling experience will never be forgotten and as he stated. "It produced some learning experiences that I'll never forget. It hurts to think about Saturday and Em sure it will for a little while, but the whole thing will end up helping me in the long run than hurting me." DICKSON FURTHER commented. Shawn could have gone up to 19, but he didn't because he didn't want to duck anyone. To me that's more important than winning at 19. We thought he had a chance at 112. But I'll tell ya what. I'm as proud as heck of the little guy. 1 wouldn't trade him for anyone else. He's been a class individual and a good leader. ABOUT THE loss, I believe it's going to from Coach Jim Dickson. a hurt for awhile and 1 would be disappointed if it Hinckley gets hug didn't. We've tried to teach the kids to be successful. But Shawn is dealing with it because he really knows there was more to it than winning or losing a wrestling match. THERE WASNT a Davis follower that didn't hurt inside when he lost that one." Prior to getting into the state championship, Robinson had defeated Layton's Eric Hydetin a classic semi-finmatch in what many termed as one of his finest performances of his prep wrestling career. GREG McNABB had a heartbreak of his own after losing on a referee's decision in the semis to Hillcrest's Joey Van Vaulkenberg. The match was knotted at 5 going into overtime and after overtime was The Hillcrest wrestler was given the ticket to the title bout because his two overtime points came off a reversal while Gregs two came off two escapes. The two points at one time was ruled better than plus 1. That's how close the match was and that's how close McNabb misShawn Robinson lost a heartbreaker to Cyprus' sed from getting in the state championship. Dave Lucero. Greg, who had beaten VanVaulkenberg earlier in the season insovertime, stated. I just didn't have enough experience with his style. The guy has strong hips and was hard to shoot on." 1 The hearts of Shawn KAYSV1LLE Robinson's and Nate Hinckley's teammates had a chance to bleed last Saturday night as well as mend and bubble with joy. THE KIDS have been into sharing each others successes and failures from the very said Jim Dickson. And I know beginning, there wasn't a kid from our squad that didn't hurt when Shawn lost and didn't have a surge of joy come through them when Hinckley won." It was indeed an emotional moment at the Dee Events Center last weekend as one Dart e wrestling great lost in a bid to become a defending state champion and still another wrestling great finally brought home the coveted prize. ROBINSON lost a heartbreaking 0 deci-- . sion to Cyprus' Dave Lucero in the championship at 112 while Hinckley dealth John Kendrick of West Jordan a defeat in the fmalsof the championship. Overall the Darts placed two more wrestlers and as a team finished in fifth place with 93 pounds. Only Brighton, Box Elder, Hillcrest and West Jordan finished ahead of the Darts. The other two placers were Derek Green at 105 and Greg McNabb at 185. AS DICKSON related a few words about the 84 group, humility surrounded his feelings as he stated. Each group of seniors gets more special as the years go by, but this gathering has been my favorite. Maybe it's just because there is more of them. "I told some of the kids that it's fun to coach, but it's easy coaching great kids. It was down right easy with the kind of kids 1 had to work with. They worked and worked and never two-tim- folded up." THE DARTS second individual state champion in two years came in the form of Hinckley who stated with bold confidence, I've never felt better about wrestling, in fact I felt ten times better than at region. will admit that I was nervous, having never met any of those guys before and seeing they were all ranked in state. But after finishing second last year, boy did 1 want it this time. don't think I've ever wanted anything more in my entire life." 1 1 n. THERE WERE a bunch of Layton followers whose hearts went out to Hyde. I know I'll never forget him. he's been a great asset to our program. You'd do just about anything for a young man like that." Eric came out storming the first day of action as he pinned both Dino Rivera of Granger and Sean Keller of Brighton. But on Friday it was Davis' Shawn Robinson who perhaps wrestled one of his finest matches of his career in beatHyde had to settle for fourth ing Hyde after being beaten by Carter of Box Elder place on the final day of the meet. Hyde was when final until the moments Carter leading the Box Elder wrestler got a reversal. Robinson Causes Some HINCKLEY LED 1 after the first session and added three more points in the second period to win by a margin of 1 over West Jordan's Kendrick. "Nate as ajunior was so close, but yet so far away. And 1 think thats what gave him some driving confidence and a brighter mental picture. WHEN YOU dont get it the first time, it's a little tougher to let it get away the second time. Hinckley was a master out there last week and in the championship match never made a mistake," said Dickson. On the road to the state title, Hinckley defeated Belov of Brighton 13-- Dave Pederson of Olympus 19-- 7 and Blake Cook of Hillcrest in the semis BOY IT feels good to be No. 1, in fact it feels a lot better than what I expected it to," said Hinckley. But as one story ended with a happy ending, another one didn't as Robinson's chance to seek a second straight state title were thwarted d David and by the Lucero of Cyrpus. LUCERO SCORED all five of his points in the first round against Robinson and that was 4-- 7-- 2. 6-- ever-prese- multi-talente- 1 1 al 5-- 2-- 2. BUT MCNABB did go on to place fourth in the state meet w hich goe along with the region title which he won earlier. "The only reason 1 did so well and the reason I stuck with it is because of Coach Dickson. People just like to work hard for him because he works hard for us. He's taken real good care of us." said McNabb. ANOTHER SENIOR that placed was Derek Green. At 105 he placed fifth and ended his senior year of wrestling in style. To open the tournament. Green pinned Bill Lambros of Roy but then was beaten by Monte Cook of Hillcrest. One of the highlights of Green's tournament was his decision over Mike Pugh of Highland, the same guy that had beaten him out of region. Dickson is hopeful that the seniors that are bidding farewell to the program did something to excite Davis returning lettermen in Justin Julandcr, Robert West, Bruce Hinckley, Rody Meacham. Todd Marriott and Vaughn All of the later had their moments in the '84 event. Cas-dorp- h. : mmJ Hinckley stands proud, and justly so after winning it all. v; |