The Spanish Fork Dons wrestling team overcame last week's spanking at the hands of the Red Devils of Springville, when they traveled south and upset the highly regarded 3A powerhouse Delta Rabbits in their home lair 36-33.

Putting the bitter taste of their season opening loss to the resurgent Devils behind them, head coach Dave Clark's youngsters made a commitment to themselves that they would rebound with a vengeance and get back on the winning track. Staring at the endless steam of state championship wrestling banners hanging from the Delta gym wall was much like David staring at Goliath, but the Dons were unfazed as they reached into their sack of grit and stood toe to toe with Delta right down to the final match of the night.

The battle got off to a bit of stumble as freshmen Traven Gardner, wrestling in only his second varsity match, bit off more than he could chew and ended up on his back, getting pinned at 103 pounds.

Not to be intimidated, fellow frosh, Kaleb Ashworth took care of business as he stormed to a dominating technical fall victory at 112 pounds and help open the door for another tough ninth grader, Jace Kelly. The game Kelly, taking his lead from Ashworth, mauled his Rabbit in short order, finishing with a second straight tech fall victory for the upstart Dons.

The 125 pound match found the Dons' senior Seth Bracken taking the varsity mat for the first time ever, but inexperience was never a factor for the eager senior as he held his ground and finished off his more seasoned opponent with a close decision victory and three team points, pushing the Dons ahead in the team score.

Sophomore Tom Clark got back to his winning ways with a major decision at 130 pounds and the Dons found themselves ahead by eleven points.

Junior Kyle Sanford stumbled at 135 for the second week in a row and dropped his match by fall. The talented Sanford is off to a bit of a slow start this year, but has so much talent, there is little doubt he will recover and be a dominating wrestler as the season moves on.

Alex Gibb was the victim of an illegal throw in his 140 pound match and when he was unable to continue wrestling, he was awarded the win. The extent of his injury was not known at press time, but coach Clark seemed to think the talented Gibb will soon be back on the mat at full strength.

Young Brett Grover squared off against a kid who took third in the State last year and despite a gallant effort, ended up getting pinned in the first round.

First year senior, Casey Shepherd got a rude introduction to varsity war as he suffered the same fate as Grover, dropping his match by a fall.

The Dons looked to be in a bit of a rut as Dave Sorensen lost a one point lead in the last two seconds of his match, getting himself reversed and coming out on the short end of a one point loss.

The Dons lead had shrunk to 24 to 21 at this point, but junior Kyle Weight stepped forward to stem the tide at 171 pounds and would have no part of losing control of the lead the Dons had worked so hard to build up. Showing mid season form and end of year grit, the talented Weight made stew of his Rabbit with an impressive pin, extending the Dons lead to 30 to 21 with three matches still to go.

Things got dicey for the Dons as Eric kitchen and Curtis Everett suffered back to back pin losses, and before you could spell snowshoe, the Rabbits had regained the lead 33 to 30 with only one match left to wrestle.

In typical fashion, when the Dons have needed a show stopper, senior Brady Miller has long been willing to rise to the occasion. Tonight was no different. The hulkish Miller had fire in his eye as he wasted no time in turning the helpless Rabbit on his back and sticking him with a first round pin and a come from behind three point team victory 36 to 33.

Delta is a quality program with a quality team thus this victory for a underclassmen heavy group of kids is a huge step forward to Clark's charges. Coach Clark observed that this bunch of wrestlers have a terrific attitude and a joy to work with. "They wrestle a lot older than they are" he mused. "Our goal is to win region and a top five finish at State this year and when we get guys like Rod Cox and Jense Kofed back from injuries, we should be on track to battle the best in region and State".

Solid goals, but this should be a solid team. Next up, a duel against region favorite Lone Peak at Lone Peak this Thursday.