Dec. 21, 2004: The Park Record

Prep Wrestlers Converge in Coalville: North Summit Hosts Large Invitational Meet
by Adia Waldburger

This past Saturday, Coalville beat Park City as the biggest destination location in Summit County.

The North Summit High School Wrestling Invitational welcomed 16 teams and their large fan followings from around the state and Wyoming, including Bear Lake, Duchesne, Murray, Woods Cross, Hunter, Wasatch, Ogden, Tooele, Grantsville, Union, Uintah, Jordan, and Kemmerer, Cokeville and Mountain Crest high school in Wyoming.

In its eighth year, this large tournament is the run by North Summit wrestling coaches Steve and Maclaine Hamilton. Every year, the father and son duo send out invitations every year to schools from all levels and areas. They try to target schools that their team would not normally wrestle against to expose the young wrestlers to other programs.

"It gives us a chance to see other kids and wrestling teams ones they normally wouldn't see in the year," said Maclaine.

Wasatchs Scott Rawlings pins North Summits Dave McNaughton.

The all-day event takes the coaches a day to set up, and a full 12 hours to execute. Weigh-in began at 8 a.m. and the tournament did not wrap up until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night.

According to Steve, the school received a lot of positive feedback from the attending schools on how well their tournament was run.

The major undertaking was not in vain. The Braves ended up finishing fourth in team competition behind Ogden, Wasatch and Hunter and senior Justin Bagnell received outstanding wrestler honors in the upper weight division. The 152-weight class wrestler claimed the award after winning all four of his matches.

The high finish was pleasing for the Hamiltons, whose program is missing wrestlers in some weight classes. After finishing in the top three in region competition and sixth in state last year, the coaching staff was worried about the gaps in this year's squad.

"This year we are a bit down. It's hard to win dual meets when you don't have kids at a lot of weights," said Maclaine.

The wrestling program runs a junior high and little league program within the school system, which Maclaine hopes will fill some of the gaps on the team in coming years.

The Braves will now take a brake for the holidays before wrestling again on Wednesday, Jan. 5 when host Mountain View High School, Wyoming. The battle of the Summit County schools, when the Braves face their biggest region rival South Summit, will take place on Jan. 28 at home.