Dec. 17, 2006: The Salt Lake Tribune

Viewmont Places Second at Own Meet
by Matt Thurber

BOUNTIFUL — When push came to shove in the 2006 Viewmont Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Saturday night, nobody pushed as hard or shoved his way into the spotlight like 125-pound Taira Abe of Viewmont.

As first-place winner in his weight division, Abe was honored with a special Outstanding Wrestler Award and led his team to a second-place finish at the invitational, behind only the Millard Eagles, who took first place in the team standings.

"I think we could have done better this tournament, but when it comes to state, things will be different," said Abe, who noted he enjoyed watching teammate Jesse Farnsworth take home a first-place medal in the 215-pound division. "We also have some injuries right now, and that played in part in the overall standings, so we'll be better after Christmas"

During Saturday's finals, one of the closest matches featured T.J. Robbins of Millard against Taylor Tate from Highland in the 189-pound division. For every two-point takedown by Robbins, Tate racked up the score with frequent one-point escapes. After a blood timeout, Tate showed signs of fatigue as Robbins accumulated six more takedown points after the break to win the match 13-9.

In addition to all the athletes from Utah, several Wyoming wrestlers competed, such as Mason Kinion and Adam Horton from Evanston, who placed second in their respective divisions, while teammate Joseph Platt ended up fifth in the 130-pound category.

As many fans assume it's a given the Vikings will always win their own invitational, Saturday night's results prove Millard wasn't going to leave the gymnasium without anything but . And for Viewmont coach Bart Thompson, taking second place at home was great, but not exactly what he expected.

"We came in it to win it and that was the goal," he said. "I'm a little disappointed we didn't do that, but you never win as many as you hope and there comes a point where you always start thinking 'What if we only won a couple more of those matches?' I can say I feel better about how our team performed tonight than how they did a few weeks ago in Layton."