Jan. 4, 2004: The Spectrum

Blizzard Can't Keep Wrestlers from the Mat
by Brad Plothow

BEAVER — Severe weather along much of I-15 wasn't reason enough for Utah and Nevada wrestlers to stay home over the weekend.

Sixteen teams braved the winter conditions en route to Beaver High to compete in the Beaver Invitational wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday.

"I think the coaches went beyond to see that they're kids got here," said Beaver wrestling coach Alan Raddon.

But while the blizzard raged outside, things heated up on the mat, particularly for Juab and Delta wrestlers.

The Juab Wasps placed 10 wrestlers in the finals to nab a 280-point first place finish, but the Rabbits were close behind. Delta had finalists in five wieght classes and accumulated 254 points to claim second place. The closest team to Delta was Beaver, but the Beavers were almost 100 points shy of Delta's total.

"They just have too much strength. A lot of experience on those two teams, especially Juab, and I think that did it," said Raddon.

Five Wasps won their division — the squads to spoil number-one rankings for Juab wrestlers were Delta, Enterprise, Virgin Valley, and, well, Juab. That's what happens when both 152-pound finals brackets are won by Juab wrestlers.

The Mesquite-based Bulldogs made runners-up of the Wasps in the 135 and 140-pound matches, but Juab didn't go easy.

In the 140-pound match, Virgin Valley's Kyle Johnson had to play catch-up after falling behind Juab's Brandon Day 1-4 in the second round. However, a reversal and a near-fall later, Johnson went up 6-5 on Day before pinning him with 23 seconds left on the match.

"I thought I was going to stick him at first, but he didn't let me roll him. I just didn't panick," said Johnson. "Coach told me that you've got to believe and you've got to fight," Johnson added.

The match's intensity reached its boiling point when the 171-pound dual pitted Beaver's Kurt Marchant against Piute's Steven Hatch. The match was physical - to the extreme. The contest was decided by a two-point margin, which was the cushion given to Hatch due to two roughness points awarded to the Piute wrestler when Marchant slammed him to the mat and held him in an illegal hold.

"The last person that scores wins (that match); they're two very aggressive wrestlers," said Raddon of the match.

Enterprise edged past Grand by a mere three points to secure the number six spot at the tournament and placed four wrestlers in the finals. Beaver's score of 167 came mostly via lower placements in the tournament as only two Beavers made it to the tournament finals.

Juab — 280
Delta — 254
Beaver — 167
Virgin Valley — 166.5
S. Sevier — 143
Enterprise — 139
Grand — 136

Finals

103 — Shepard (Delta) def. Holt (Ent.), 112 — Pickering (Ent.) def. McPhereson (Juab), 119 — Truman (Ent.) def. Holman (Delta), 125 — Brown (S.S) def. Moss (Beaver).

130 — Evans (Delta) pinned Shephard (Juab), 135 — Greenhalgh (Juab) def. Keogh (Grand) 4-0, 140 — Johnson (V.V.) pinned Day (Juab), 145 — Woods (V.V.) def. Warner (Juab) 12-4.

152 — Pay (Juab) pinned Bastian (Juab), 160 — Worwood (Juab) def. Englestead (Pang.) 7-4, 171 — Hatch (Piute) def. Marchant (Beaver) 10-8, 189 — Steele (Delta) def. Moyle (Ent.) 4-3, 215 — Boyd (Juab) pinned Nickle (Delta), HWT — Guillory (Juab) pinned Taylor (Grand).
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