Show V ' B4— The Herald Journal Logan Utah Tuesday February 4 2003 Event Continued from R2 Center As I watched some great wrestling and talked witlunany of the volunteers helping at die tourney the conversation kept shifting toward one man Littlefield Words like selfless dedicated caring and hard working were the adjectives that kept being repeated by people who insisted on laying homage to Littlefield It seems Littlefield almost bid for organized and very successfully put on the state wresding tournament Of course I couldn't get him to admit it Unfortunately for Littlefield there were an abundance of witnesses who were more than happy to oblige my questions about who was responsible for such an impressive competition "I think Doug has done an excellent job" Sky View coach Paul Hardy said "It's been really fun and it was nice to stay home We've had to travel for every tournament and so to have this here has been really special for us" Littlefield's plight began back in single-handed- State Continued from B2 Jarrett said "But when I won 1 was really happy" Next up it was Jarretf s twin brother Jake who was comweight peting in the division Jake also faced a wrestler from Sandy Murick Christensen Not to be outdone by his twin and also wanting to protect his family's legacy of quality wrestlers (the Morrill twins' two older brothers Trent Morrill and Justin Morrill wrestle on Mountain Crest's varsity team) Jake racked up 14 quick points He would hold on to match his brother's score of 14- 2 and be crowned state champion as well "I'm really happy" Jake said "I wrestled the kid last week so I kinda knew what to expect" In the championship match it was Logan's Peacock taking on Springville's Jason Chamber-lai- n Peacock hung in there the first period but was eventually pinned in the second period "It feels pretty good to be second in state" Peacock said "I got pinned in my finals match but I guess that hap- pens" Mountain Crest’s third finals competitor Smethmst welcomed yet another Sandy wrestler Matt Brown to the mat battle In a dose Brown eventually got the better of Smethmst winning 4--1 "It was my first time going for first or second" Smethmst said "So it was pretty good" In the 96rpound class it Sky View's Smith wrestled Spanish Fork's Mark Moughn Smith despite wrestling hard and showing a lot of heart was pinned by Moughn in the first period "I think I did really well" Smith said "Last year I didn't do too good and this year I won a whole bunch" Lockhart was the next wrestler to compete for a state title He was competing in the category After a winning tough semi-fin- al match Lockhart engaged once again in a tough finals match against Weber's Nathan Hubbard Unfortunately Lockhart would come up a little short losing 2 "I felt like I wrestled good today" Lockhart said "I think I had a chance to win in the finals but I don't think I took advantage of it like I should hard-foug- ht - 128-pou- nd 5-- have" Logan's 190-pou- Birky was foe final valley wrestler Eliason Continued from B1 Jake Box as well as Clearfield's Jared Wilcox "Personally I think SUU did one of foie best recruiting jobs in the state" Eliason said Tm not just saying that because I'm going there" While Zimmerman also plans to play baseball at SUU Eliason said he is not going too "I don't see myself playing two sports because Tm gonna go down there and they’ve got a great sports medicine pro ly April wtaen he bid and won the opportunity to bring the state tournament to Logan This was followed by countless hours of preparing for the tournament Finding a building making wall brackets finding concessions security safety and trustworthy volunteers were but a few of the things that Littlefield had to organize and plan for And so Saturday's tourney was more than just another wrestling tournament it was die culmination of a lot of hard work and perseverance by a man who simply loves kids "I think Doug did a wonderful job" Mountain Crest coach Chad Clawson said "The state touraa- ments we've been to in the years past have just been tun straight through and the kids don't have an opportunity to enjoy them We wrestled full mats all day long which we have never done before "And so Doug just did a wonder- fill job" It all started with the early morning presentation of the flag by the American Legion And then later on in the evening it wasthe Logan City Police Department presenting the flag just prior to the championship matches These two emo vying for a state title Birky after punishing challenger after challenger to get to the finals lost to Payson's Garrett Cannon What was Birky's reaction when he won his semifinal match and realized he would be wrestling for a state title? "Heck yeah" Birky said When all the matches woe over Mountain Crest found itself in fifth place with 85 points and nine wrestlers placing in the top six: Jarrett (first) Jake (first) Zekiele Smethmst (second) Lockhart (second) Raider Bottoroff (third) Eathan Bottoroff (third) Adam Schenk (fifth) Zabinddi Smethmst (sixth) and Colton Lindsay (sixth) "Overall I think we started out slow" Mountain Crest coach Chad Clawson said "But over the last few weeks our kids have really wrestled tough They really showed us that they came to wrestle Our whole focus has been on this tournament and I feel we finished very strong right where we wanted to be" "This year has been great" added Mountain Crest coach Dustin Lowe "Our young kids came in and really gave us us boost They're all a bunch of hard workers" Sky View finished sixth with 57 points with eight wrestlers placing in tire top six: Smith (second) Courtney Bair (third) Skyler Sorenson (third) Don McMullin (third) Dustin Clark (fourth) Austin Richins (fifth) Jake Redd (sixth) Josh Mecham (sixth) and Jake Weston (sixth) "We definitely improved this year" Sky View coach Paul Hardy said "There were some disappointments but everyone did their best and I'm happy with their performance" Logan finished just behind Sky View with 52 points and they too placed eight wrestlers in foe top six: Peacock (second) Birky (second) Josh Thatcher (third) Scott Milne (fourth) Ryan Finlayson (sixth) Jonathan Dattage (sixth) Reagan Shaw (sixth) and Tyrell Whitehair (sixth) "They are a great group of kids" said Logan coach Doug Littlefield referring to his team "We had fun we laughed and we joked We're like a family" As the crowd filed out late Saturday night everyone one was spent and in dire need of some rest But interestingly most of the tired faces had smiles And not only did they have smiles they left with plenty of cherished memories as well gram" Eliason explained "That1 s what I'm gung-h- o are tional ceremonies were accotnpa- nied by a chilling version of our : ' National Anthem by Haily Jones Then there was the wrestling The matches progressed without a hitch with quality referees scoring them The many volunteers kept accurate records ensuring smooth progression The volunteers also kept a restless crowd in check by maintaining a safe and comfortable environment And no tournament would be complete without a concession stand which produced good food and cold drinks for die hoards of people in attendance I was impressed to say the least Throughout die whole day I kept noticing Littlefield darting back and forth — he seemed to be everywhere and with good reason — he was needed everywhere He answered questions supervised and managed made decisions cleaned up and amazingly coached "I feel really strong about the good job Doug did" Mountain Crest Coach Dustin Lowe said "It ran smooth We didn't have to wait for mats He basically ran it really well He hosted it really well" In the end Littlefield pulled it off The tournament was a huge success And he did it all for the kids GAINESVILLE Fla (AP) -T- he schedule games for midday hoping to ' gun an advantage from die sunlight shining through the windows and tern-'- ! porarily blinding opposing players It wasn't until 1960 that Florida ! emerged fiom the dark ages and hired basketball coach Norm a full-tiSloan Before that die Gators normal- ly found their coach by searching their roster of assistants from the football team or by picking a volunteer from '! the physical education faculty lliey have been much much better of late reaching die NCAA finals in 2000 and rising to No 2 in the poll as recently as last year Bui the top spot in the AP poll had : always seemed like a better fit for the football team Until now Their winning streak ties die school record set last year Their ascen-sio- n to No 1 came two months to the day of then last loss Dec 3 at Vfest Virginia “Our immediate goal is not to be No 1” sophomore center David Lee said “1 mean it’s great to be No 1 But we want' to be No 1 at the end of the season” ar The Gators (18--2 74) Southeastern Conference) jumped from forth to first after a week in which the three teams ahead of them — Arizona Pittsburgh and Tfcxas — all lost while they won twice to stretch their winning streak to 14 games Lest they get too excited Florida’s first team comes Tuesgame 8s a day at No 6 Kentucky hTa game that will decide the leader in the SEC East “The key is to be humble” Donovan said “or this could be the shortest-lived stay at No 1 in the history of top-rank- ed 14-ga- college basketball” Either way it has been a long time coming Before 1980 Florida played in the old Alligator Alley a dusty little gym that seated 7000 The Gators liked to BFGoodrich YOUR FULL SERVICE CAR CARE CE TAKE CONTROL m TDURINGTAHR4 P23575R15 Extra Load P1950HR1574 mfMfcHEWni enlal® 85 P21565R1(L'm120 P18WWU P1956SR15 110 P205B5R15 111 111 P21570R15 P2057QR15 mm — RINGCONTACTCH95 PMUGol 108 AMERI-G4- S ill MXV4PLUS 143 i152 P19565HR15 P205B5HR15 P18565R14 153 158 5S StnuMU GRABBER TR 31X10i0R15J8 ! COMPUTERIZED LT23585R1B10 - 88 Ply- P26570R164LESS LT26575R16108 P25570R164 LESS 4 LESS P24575H16E LT26575R16M-- M P205A55R11L Catoy LaSta VMu LTXMS PZ3Sff5H15 P20570R15 OrigMEqutmnllDrSinki P20560HR15-1- 42 P22560HR16 P23560HR16 © EENEnALTIRE SYMMETRY P21570R15 P22560SR16 77 P20555R16 106 115 P215B5R15 J4 P22&60HR16104 HARMONY P19S7DR14 78 P20560HR15 P21560HR15 4 i LESS P27570HR1641E5 atflHvcaoffPOft AH Season DMbiRjWinimai 1M Diiniinmo mtr I BRAKE SERVICE rot Evurrmts rot Major brand tires ea at discount prices BKoott trilAlNiNWl taum ltr cmmTAAL OFF Steel Belted Radial CROSS TERRMlI P2657M15 ALIGNMENT ESCORT TIGER PAW AWP tmmt mmm — l 1 OFF 58 P185I65R15t P23505R15 SKIMS UrtwipMUNi Capa B0 VIMS -- for Fm thinking two sports is gonna limit me in that ' "I think one sport to get me through college plus that sports medicine is what I really want to focus on That piece of paper at foe rad of the four years is gonna help me through life" Serving a mission for foe LDS Church could be in Elia-son- 's future as well Td play my first semester' see what happens then Td probably leave on my mission sometime in late January just after the season" Eliason said - College! basketball G ators finally hade it The team that spent its formative years being coached by assistants from the football staff and playing in a dingy dimly lit gym made it to No 1 in the AP poll Monday for the first time in its history “I think we made it by a process of elimination” Florida coach Billy Donovan said 88-ye- A4 'I EASYXCREDITiTERMS TIRE & AUTOMOTIVE SAMETASICASH IBrofriclence Si 885 North Mairr 753-241- 2 110SHwy 165 787-184- 4 Visit : w on 8rw at wwwjccctirwonlln6com and schedule your next appointment SHOURSS 730am 730m-&0$mS- -- 4 ftOOpn Ilf 8Mi or Loot todf VOim fliquM or Ctad 8M Gmibofvnintt or Dtapotri Fm Ait EMM |