Dec. 10, 2006: Deseret Morning News

Wyoming Wrestlers Dominate Duals
by Devon Black

HEBER CITY — Utah high schools dominated individually at the Intermountain Wrestling Duals on Saturday but lost the important matches and ended up settling for consolation prizes.

Meanwhile, Green River High School from Wyoming waltzed into Heber City and upended the home-standing favorites, Wasatch.

Green River went a perfect 9-0 in the tournament and won a thrilling dual with the heavily favored Wasps that ended up deciding first place.

Even after winning the duals, however, Green River couldn't say enough good about its opponent.

"To be able to compete with Wasatch is an honor," said Green River coach Darren Heslep. "The people from Wasatch are outstanding sportsmen. They've come up to me for the last two days and they've congratulated our efforts. Whether we won or lost it was a phenomenal dual, and having something like that happen was amazing."

Aside from the four-time defending 3A champion Wasps, the pool of teams also included 4A favorites Springville and Mountain Crest, along with perennially strong South Summit, Spanish Fork and Pleasant Grove.

The tournament became a two-team race early on that was decided in the heavyweight match of the Green River/Wasatch dual. Green River's Skip Crooks pinned Sean Cartwright in 28 seconds to win the dual and put his team at the top of the rankings for good.

"Wasatch is a great team," said Heslep. "It's a group that we've struggled with. That was probably the most exciting dual I've experienced in about 20 years of coaching."

Wasatch and Springville took home most of the individual honors with a combined seven wrestlers going undefeated.

For the Wasps, Casey Smith (130), Jake Salazar (145) and Ethan Smith (160) won all of their matches. Springville had four undefeated winners in Kolby Bradley (119), Logan Wilson (125), Jacob Rawle (135) and Jason Chamberlain (140).

Springville fell to fourth place in the team standings after losing its dual with Idaho Falls, Idaho, by two points. In a dual that featured mostly the lower weight classes, Springville gave up too many points and couldn't make up the difference in the heavyweight match, winning in a one-point decision.

South Summit, Pleasant Grove, Mountain Crest, Fruita Monument and Lehi rounded out the team rankings.

Pleasant Grove's Keola Goodman (112) and Mitch Sanderson (171) joined Mountain Crest's Ethan Lofthouse (152) as the other Utah wrestlers who won their weight divisions with undefeated records.

South Summit's Skyler Page (189) won his division with a single defeat.

Other individual weight winners were Green River's Crooks and Seth Harris (103), and Idaho Falls' Brian Warden (215).

TEAM RESULTS 1. Green River, Wyo.; 2. Wasatch; 3. Idaho Falls, Idaho; 4. Springville; 5. South Summit; 6. Pleasant Grove; 7. Mountain Crest; 8. Fruita Monument; 9. Lehi

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
103 — 1, Seth Harris, Green River; 2, Raider Lofthouse, Mountain Crest; 3, Trevor Sweat, Wasatch.
112 — 1, Keola Goodman, Pleasant Grove; 2, Kaleb Ashworth, Spanish Fork; 3, Justin Schumacher, Green River.
119 — 1, Kolby Bradley, Springville; 2, Jake Morrill, Mountain Crest; 3, Matt Spencer, Lehi.
125 — 1, Logan Wilson, Springville; 2, Spencer Schwab, Mountain Crest; 3, Kendall Prescott, South Summit.
130 — 1, Casey Smith, Wasatch; 2, Hayden Petersen, Springville; 3, Josh Warner, Idaho Falls.
135 — 1, Jacob Rawle, Springville; 2, Casey Christenson, South Summit; 3, Eric Harris, Green River.
140 — 1, Jason Chamberlain, Springville; 2, Travis Tullio, Fruita Monument; 3, Cody Wall, South Summit.
145 — 1, Jake Salazar, Wasatch; 2, Zeke Smethurst, Mountain Crest; 3, Caleb Christen, Springville.
152 — 1, Ethen Lofthouse, Mountain Crest; 2, Joe Meinhart, Fruita Monument; 3, Skyler Porter, Wasatch.
160 — 1, Ethan Smith, Wasatch; 2, Jake Hildebrant, Green River; 3, Matt Cox, Idaho Falls.
171 — 1, Mitch Sanderson, Pleasant Grove; 2, Regan Hunsaker, Green River; 3, Karl Thompson, Idaho Falls.
189 — 1, Skyler Page, South Summit; 2, Jordan McCourt, Green River; 3, Sean McLean, Pleasant Grove.
215 — 1, Brian Warden, Idaho Falls; 2, Nick Fullmer, Pleasant Grove; 3, Sean Sullivan, Wasatch.
285 — 1, Skip Crooks, Green River; 2, Danny Hickman, Springville; 3, Sean Cartwright, Wasatch.