If it weren't for his father taking a new job here in Utah last year, senior Jade Anderson would have been looking forward to competing at the Washington state high school wrestling tournament at the Tacoma Dome this winter.

Now, Anderson is looking at wrestling at the state 5A tournament at UVSC's McKay Events Center next month.

He's already familiar with that facility. He took sixth at the Rocky Mountain Rumble, which was held there earlier in January.

"I'm from Puyallup, Washington," Anderson said. "It's near Seattle. I wrestled for Emerald Ridge High. In my last year at that school, I beat all of my kids in my region -- or leagues, as we call high school regions in Washington.

"At the league tournament, I took third, though. The South Puget Sound League, Emerald's league, is one of the toughest regions in Washington."

The move-in student said SPSL member schools are Class 4A in Washington, but they are the equivalent of Utah's 5A schools.

At the recent Rocky Mountain Rumble, Anderson said he got to speak to boys from Washington state high school teams that had come out to Orem to participate in the tournament. He said some of them were old acquaintances.

"After I took third in region last year, I tore my rotary cuff just before the state tournament, so I couldn't wrestle at the Tacoma Dome," Anderson said.

Had he been able to compete in the 2006 state meet at that facility, he would have been wrestling before a very large crowd.

Anderson said, "Tens of thousands of people turn out for the state wrestling tournaments at the Tacoma Dome."

He said, "My dad (Brent) wrestled one year while he was in high school, but he decided to stick with football and track instead."

American Fork head wrestling coach Stan Kitchen said, "Jade's been really good for us this year. He struggled with controlling opponents around here. He's learning to control them now. Though he's not a team captain, he's still a leader."

Anderson showed his ability to keep opponents under control during a recent dual meet at Mountain View. The meet opened with Anderson wrestling with Bruin Gabe Raeder. They wrestled to a 2-2 tie in the first period.

However, Anderson escaped from Raeder's hands during the next period, and the Caveman went on to win 5-3.

In a dual against Copper Hills at the State 5A Duals Saturday, Anderson pinned his opponent Jerry Pacheco before their match could reach its halfway point.

Anderson said of all the Utah wrestlers he would like to wrestle the most this year, it would Wasatch's Jake Salazar.

Anderson said, "He beat me up pretty bad at the Rocky Mountain Rumble."

Salazar pinned him in the third period of their quarterfinal match. Anderson bounced back to win four straight bouts before losing to Alta's Carson Walker in their match for fifth place.

Now that the Cavemen's wrestling season is winding down, Anderson is looking forward to making an appearance as a prep wrestler at the MEC again next month.

Whether he gets to do that all depends on how he performs at the region meet next month.