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Show r , x - - v ... ..r v? - i I! f :. . r. ; ' , i r f I ? - V f A. ; X 'r Dave Smith earned a fourth place finish in the unlimited division. Viewmont Leads Parade of Prep Grapplers By DAVE WIGHAM Clipper Sports OGDEN -- Viewmont led the parade of local wrestlers at the state meet held last weekend at Weber State College as the Vikes saw one of their wrestlers claim a title, another in second place and two others claimed the consolation titles and third place. BOUNTIFUL was next in line with one third, and two fourth place finishes while Woods Cross had one grappler place in the top six with a fifth place showing in the 167 pound class. Shon Wilson was the lone state champion from the local clubs with his first place effort, (see related story) but he wasn't the only Viking Vik-ing to enjoy success at the state meet. SENIOR MATT McNeil earned his way into the championships of the 138 pound class but was knocked off iri overtime to give him second place. This marked the second time in as many years that Matt finished in second place in the state meet, a year ago he was second in the 132 pound class. Matt looked strong the entire tournament in gaining a berth in the finals. In his opening round match the Region Four champion quickly quick-ly disposed of Blaine Houseley of Sky View with a pin in the first round. Then in the quarterfinals quar-terfinals he took on Ronnie Neff of Hillcrest and when that match was over Matt had a relatively easy 8-0 victory. THEN IN THE semi-finals Matt, who was the number four seed, took on number six seed Rob Stoffers of Weber. Matt showed the fans in attendance all the moves in the world as he easily won 15-3 in a great display of his wrestling wrest-ling prowess. In the finals though he ran into Ray Salazaar of Granite. After regulation time the score was knotted at 5-5 sending the match into overtime. The big move, what proved to be the difference, came in the second round of overtime with both wrestlers trying to throw each other. Benson Alder of Bountiful and Matt McNiel of Viewmont await third and second place ribbons. As it turned out Matt ended up on the bottom of the two wrestlers and Salazaar had the two point takedown and a couple of nearfall points. "That throw could have gone either way" noted Viewmont coach Steve Sanderson "Matt just ended up on the bottom." MATT WAS visibly upset over the loss but he should still be proud of his career and his year he completed at Viewmont. Another Viking senior Dave Blauer bounced back from a loss in the semifinals to claim two victories on Saturday to win the consolation title and third place in the 126 pound class. In the opening round Dave beat Eric Singleton of Alta 10-4 and then preceded to beat Mike Pe-terman Pe-terman of Roy 9-7. That sent him into the semis against Perry Skudlarczyk of Brighton. Dave went after his opponent hard in the first round getting up to a 8-1 lead at one point. As the match wore on though Dave seemed to run out of gas and finally he was turned a couple of times near the end of time to drop a 17-9 deci- Dave Blauer wrestled his way to a third place finish in the 126 lbs. . ; , n ."''.,,,....,.,..,,,, f ' Trent Jones held on to claim a fourth place in the 155 lbs. J ; . - ) I . I :::.: !-'' H .mfsswsssa N Jeff Sowell claimed third place in the 1 19 lbs. sion. "I was burned out" he noted after "maybe I warmed up too much or went after it too hard at the first. I don't know but I do know I was tired." ANYWAY ON Saturday he came back to beat Russ Steele of Hillcrest 10-2 and then Brian Bailey of Layton 10-9 to earn third place. So went the story of junior Jeff Sowell who also lost a semi-final match and then bounced back to win two on Saturday and the consolation consola-tion title and third place. Opening round Jeff took care of Darin Paskett of Roy to the tune of 17-2 and then he followed with a 13-8 win over John Medina of Kearns sending him into the semi-finals. THERE HE RAN into a buzz saw named Rod Fresques of West Jordan who handed Jeff a 10-2 setback. "He didn't just wrestle the way he is capable of offered a dejected coach Steve Sanderson. Then on Saturday Jeff came back strong to i - ' - . !i s I---' K, I p.. I) ; J Gillespie hogtied fifth place in the 1 67 lbs. knock off Rick Herdt of Clearfield 7-1 and then the Medina kid from Kearns again 6-5 to claim consolation title and third place. BOUNTIFUL WAS led in the state meet by senior Benson Alder who after losing in the quarter-finals came back to win three matches in consolation to win the title there and a third place medal . In the opening round Benson took care of Brent Higgs from Layton by a 9-7 score but then in the next round he lost to the top seed Steve Geisler of West Jordan 8-2. That put Benson in the consolation bracket but the talented season showed his pride and determination by winning all three matches. First he knocked off Eric Gustavson of Alta by a fall, then he knocked off Rob Stoffers of Weber 9-6 setting up a rematch with Geisler. This time around Benson was more aggressive and took the match to the Cougar wrestler. After earning a 2-0 advantage by virtue of his fine takedown Benson was awarded the match when his opponents coach threw in the towel citing a shoulder injury as the problem. In any event Benson earned his third place medal. SENIOR TRENT Jones of Bountiful also capped off a great year for the Braves with a fine fourth place showing in the tough 155 pound division. Opening round Trent knocked off Golden Meizer in a mismatch by the score of 24-5 but then he ran into the eventual state champion Allen Gritton of Hillcrest. Trent gave all he had but still lost 17-4 to this great Huskie grapler. It would have been easy to give up at this point but Trent battled back in the consolation bracket. First he knocked off Bill Colbert of Taylorsville 10-2, then he followed that with a 8-4 win over Kevin Herbert of Granite and a 5-1 victory over Ron Tew of Granger. NOW TRENT was in the consolation finals facing Tracy Jones of Layton, the number two seed in the meet, and after a great battle Trent dropped a 2-1 decision thus giving him the fourth place award. Big Dave Smith was the other Bountiful wrestler to top off a great season with a high finish in the state tournament with his fine fourth place in the unlimited class. Dave began the tournament with an easy win over Ian Win-,' ters of Cottonwood but then he ran into Dai , Hill of Hillcrest in the next round. When all was said and done it was Hill, who went onio place second, who handed Dave the loss. THAT PUT DAVE in the consolation division divi-sion where he showed his desire and pride, First off he knocked off John Bates of Kearns by the score of 9-0, then he pinned Mike Funk of Sky View in the third period and followed that up with a pin in overtime against Dane . Clemente of Weber. Dave now found himself in the consolation finals against Todd Wheelwright of Bonneville who went on to claim the victory over Dave. WOODS CROSS had one lone wrestler around on the final day as senior Ben Gillespie claimed fifth spot in the tough 167 pound class. Ben won his opening round battle with Kerry Jeppson of Weber with a pin in the second period but then he ran into a tough Rob Hill of Hillcrest, who took second place in the meet, and lost a 16-5 decision. Ben then went on to win two in a row in the consolation bracket with a pin over Kevin Gunderson of Cottonwood and then another pin over Dave Clark of Granite. Blaine Tracy of Layton then knocked offBen to put him into the battle for fifth and sixth against Lyle Wilcox Wil-cox of Cyprus. Ben showed a lot of determination determina-tion in this match as he pinned his opponents claim fifth place. ALL THE WRESTLERS from the area should be congratulated for their efforts this past season but these young men deserve special spe-cial mention for their efforts and the rewards they received for being in the top six at the state meet. |