Jan. 16, 2005: The Standard Examiner

Ripplinger's Crew Rolls to Victory: Box Elder High Wrestlers Capture Home Tourney
by Tony Renya

BRIGHAM CITY — When Mike Ripplinger took over the wrestling program at Box Elder High School he didn't really know what to expect or how long he would be at the school. He still doesn't know how long he will remain, but it's a safe bet that after 20 years he can stay as long as he wants.

In a pre-finals ceremony, several former Box Elder wrestlers gathered on the mat to honor Ripplinger, who was making his making his 20th appearance as the B.E. coach at the Richard Memorial Tournament, hosted by Box Elder.

"It was emotional and great to see a lot of the kids," Ripplinger said. "As a team we wanted to win (the tournament). There are a lot of good wrestlers here."

There were a few ups and downs for Ripplinger and the Bees, but when it was all over, Box Elder had another championship trophy to add to the school's trophy case.

"There are still some things we need to work on, but as a team we wrestled real well, especially Caleb (Isom) at 112 and Casey (Fromm) at 145. They were just awesome."

Isom easily disposed of his opponent, Spanish Fork's Jason Warner, 8-4, in the championship match. Isom made it to the title tilt by cruising past Mountain Crest's Jarrett Morrill, 13-1, and pinning Layton's Nick Flores at 2:38 of the match.

Fromm breezed through each of his four matches, including the championship clash against Dylan Nelson of Viewmont. Fromm defeated Nelson by technical fall, 16-0, after winning his first three matches of the tournament by fall.

"I wanted to come here and win, but I wasn't expecting it to be easy," Fromm said. "There are some pretty good wrestlers here. All I can say is 'state, here we come.' "

The Bees sent three other wrestlers to the finals, but none were successful in adding the Box Elder's championship totals.

In what was billed as the Johnson & Johnson match, the top two seeds at 152 pounds squared off for the title — Jayson Johnson of Idaho Falls and John Johnson of Box Elder. Jayson Johnson overcame an early deficit and rebounded to win the title, 9-6.

Weber's Jorge Lopez, the No. 2 seed at 189, defeated the Bees' Brett Boyce, the tournament's top seed, 8-5. At 215, Robert Taken of Hillcrest narrowly defeated Box Elder's Rhett Robinson, 3-2.

Rhett Keaton of Davis started the championship matches with a 5-2 victory over Mountain Crest's Jake Morrill, 5-2, at 103 pounds. At 119, Jake Madsen had little difficulty defeating Spencer Smoot of Viewmont, 9-4.

Richard Winger was the first of two Viewmont wrestlers to win an individual title as he upended Jeff Wilkes of Star Valley (Wyo.), 4-2. Two matches later, Shay Lawrence became a two-time Richardson Memorial champion at 135 when he outpointed Davis' Todd Squires, 9-4.

Sandwiched between the Viewmont victories was Ogden High's first individual champion in the history of the Richardson Memorial. Zack Mau blanked Sean Porter, 3-0, to capture the championship at 130 pounds.

In other championship matches, Anthony Elder of Sky View defeated Bear River's Tag Elliot, 10-4, at 140. Cody Daniles of Layton downed another Bear River wrestler, Devin Gibbs, 7-3 at 160 pounds. In the 171-pound classification, Phillip Rutledge of Mountain Crest held on to defeat West Jordan's Danny Eason in a high-scoring event, 16-10. Rick Wolfley lived up to his No. 1 billing at 275 by coming from behind to defeat No. 2-ranked Rio Stotler of West Jordan, 5-4.

Davis finished second, followed by Viewmont, Star Valley (Wyo.) and Mountain Crest. Rounding out the top 10 were Bear River at No. 6, Spanish Fork, Ogden, Idaho Falls and Sky View. West Jordan, Layton, Olympus, Weber, Hillcrest and Fremont rounded out places 11 to 16.