OCR Text |
Show Mike Birch moves on to state wrestling tournament as top seed at 126 pounds ' --u-w ter , - v ) s ; - by Randy Hanskat The Park City High School wrestling team won't have quantity at the state tournament tour-nament in North Sevier this Friday and Saturday, but it will have quality Mike Birch. Birch was the sole Park City survivor of the five Miners in this past weekend's Region 11Region 13 wrestle off held at Park City. He took the top spot at the 126 pound weight. Heading to the state tournament tour-nament will be the top four finishers from the Region 1113 meet in each weight class. They will be joined by the top four from Region 1012 to round out the field. Birch was joined Saturday by Greg Reed at 105 pounds, Ocey Leavitt at 119 pounds, Steve Jacobson at 138 pounds, and Brent Adams at 167 pounds to make up the Park City contingent. They were up against the top wrestlers from schools such as Altamont, Duchesne, White-horse, White-horse, Monticello, Monument Valley, North and South Summit. Birch wrestled three matches and won them all. His first match was against Filfred of Whitehorse at 126 pounds. Filfred got the first takedown, then Birch reversed revers-ed to tie the score at 2-2 after the first period. In the second period Birch started out on top, but Filfred reversed to go up 4-2. It was ud to Birch to take control in the third period to win. He started out on the bottom, but made a nice reversal. Once he had Filfred on the defensive, Birch took command and soon pinned him. In his next match in the winner's bracket, Birch wrestled Maybee of Green River. Maybee got the first takedown, but Birch made the reversal and then got two points for a near fall (a near pin). The second period was Maybee's. He started out on the bottom, then got an escape and a takedown to move ahead on points 5-4 going into the third. In the third period Birch sat out from his bottom position and made the reversal rever-sal to go up 6-5, and although the final seconds were tense, that was the way it ended. The win put Birch into the finals. Birch had his hands full in the final against Jeff Ercan-brack Ercan-brack of Duchesne. Ercan-brack Ercan-brack was ranked number one in the state at 126 pounds, and was favored to take the Region 1113 title. Ercanbrack opened by getting the opening takedown midway through the first period. But Birch earned one point back with an escape in the second period. That made the score 2- 1 for Ercanbrack. Then near the end of the period Birch took down his Duchesne opponent to go up 3- 2. Ercanbrack was down at the start of the third, but a reversal put him back up 4-3 at the halfway mark of the final period. Then the two wrestlers went off the mat, so they had to start over again in the middle, with Birch on the bottom. That gave Birch a chance to perform his favorite move, the sit out reversal, which he executed perfectly to go back up 5-4. He hung on to the end for the championship. Birch immediately became the target of lots of hugs, kisses, and squeezes from the parents and cheerleaders. cheer-leaders. Miners Wrestling Coach Jesse Schaub said Birch will get tough competition for the state title from Ercanbrack . and the other Region 1113 qualifiers. He will open the j tournament with a match against the fourth-place finisher from Region 1012. j "Mike has the strongest chance of winning a state 1 title of any Miner we've ever had," Schaub said. "But at the 126 pound weight anyone can beat anyone." Ocey Leavitt at 119 pounds was expected to be in the state tournament with Birch, but was upset. He won his first match, but then lost the next two, finishing fifth in the meet. His first match was against Fullmer of Monticello. Leavitt pinned him early in the third period. In the second round he faced Nacki of Whitehorse. It was a match . which Nacki dominated from the start, his superior strength being too much for Leavitt. The final score was 10-1 for Nacki. That loss put Leavitt in the consolation round, with third place still possible, against Miner wrestler Mike Birch may have had trouble deciding which rewards he liked better, the medal and winning scorecard, or the hugs and kisses from the likes of Leigh Ann Florence (left) and Joyce Olsen. He only knows that success sure is sweet ! Meecham of Altamont. Leavitt built up a solid 5-0 lead after the first period on a takedown and a near fall, and looked to be well on his way. But Mecham scored seven points in the second and four in the third to take the match 11-10 on points. Greg Reed at 105 pounds, Steve Jacobson at 138, and Brent Adams at 167 weren't able to win any of their matches, and so were eliminated elim-inated early. But observers could see quite a change in the wrestling of these three compared to the early part of the wrestling season. Jacobson was a late addition ad-dition to the Region 1113 tournament when the fourth-place fourth-place finisher from Region 11 dislocated his hip in practice. prac-tice. But he, along with Reed and Adams, were out-maneuvered out-maneuvered by their more experienced opponents. However, Adams and Jacob-son Jacob-son made it into the third round of both of their matches match-es before being pinned. With the wrestling season over for all but Birch, Schaub lauded the wrestlers. He said most of them showed great improvement over the season, learning from their mistakes, and becoming more confident as the season progressed. Next year's team should benefit from the experience of the younger wrestlers, he said. Anyone desiring to head to North Sevier to root for Birch is welcome, Schaub said. The action will start Friday afternoon at 1 p.m., and will continue Saturday starting at9a.m. |