Jan. 1, 2006: The Salt Lake Tribune

Small Schools Will Try to Make It 3 in Row
by Jay Drew

Small-School Pride

The small-school all-stars have won the last two Utah All-Star Wrestling Classics:

In football, basketball, soccer or baseball, put together a team of all-stars from Utah's Class 5-A and 4-A ranks, and they would usually crush a team of stars from 3-A, 2-A and 1-A.

Wrestling, however, is a completely different animal.

The Utah All-Star Wrestling Classic, which will be held Wednesday at Utah Valley State College (7 p.m.) is an example. The small schools (3-A, 2-A and 1-A) have won the last two events, after the large schools (5-A and 4-A) won the first three by close margins.

“We can hold our own,” said Millard's Mark Pentz, a three-time state champion who will compete for the smaller schools at 130 pounds. “It's a big deal to us guys from little schools. We want to show we are just as good as them.”

Organizers are expecting a crowd of about 4,000 wrestling fans in the UHSAA-sanctioned event, designed to raise funds for the state's only college wrestling program at UVSC. Last year, the classic netted nearly $10,000, despite a poor turnout due to inclement weather.

“It's going strong,” said Cole Kelley of the Utah Amateur Wrestling Association. “It's the one night where the focus is really on wrestling.”

The inaugural classic was held at Jordan High, but when officials had to turn away part of an overflow crowd of patrons there to celebrate wrestling and get an autograph from Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner, it was moved to UVSC, its home the past four years.

Wednesday, 14 wrestlers from the smaller schools will try to beat 14 from the bigger schools as the Classic returns to its initial format. Last year, the event featured 17 bouts, and the year prior there were 16.

Two athletes who won't be on the mats, North Sanpete's Jake Swensen and Dixie's Josh Skoglie, will be honored before the meet. Swensen is a three-time state champion and two-time Classic winner who is out with an injury, while Skoglie is a deaf wrestler who made it to the 3-A semifinals at 215 last year before losing in overtime to eventual champion Trent Steele of Delta.

Organizers like to shuffle the bouts around, so the 103-pounders won't necessarily be wrestling first and the 275-pounders don't always go last. They try to save the most-anticipated matches for the end, and this year that honor could go 140-pounders Sean Porter of Davis, a junior, and Jake Salazar of Wasatch.

Both are nationally ranked, and Porter is a two-time state champion. It will be a rematch, too, because Salazar edged Porter at the Layton Invitational earlier this month by scoring some points in the last seconds.

In all, seven bouts will pit state champ against state champ, and the field of 28 wrestlers includes 20 state champions.

It also includes some Classic rematches, in the 119-pound and 112-pound divisions.

Weber's Shay Warren, a two-time state champ, meets Uintah's Levi Mele at 119 after Mele downed Warren 9-0 last year. A junior, Warren is 15-0 this year, while the 19-1 Mele is a senior who has signed to wrestle for Pennsylvania's Lehigh University, a national power.

At 112, Springville's Kolby Bradley and Jared Shepherd of Delta will hook up again after both won state titles last year six weeks after Bradley edged Shepherd at UVSC.

Can a highly decorated 1-A champion bring down a 5-A state champ? At 160, Monticello junior Wade Eldredge, the only 1-A wrestler in the event, takes on Brighton's two-time state champion, Talan Knox, who recently won the Reno Tournament of Champions, one of the toughest prep meets in the country.

The heavyweight battle should be a good one, as a pair of football all-staters, 2-A MVP Zane Taylor of Grand and Lone Peak's Spencer Coons, match up for the first time.