OREM — After three days, seven rounds of wrestling and 406 matches, when the dust cleared at the Utah State 5-A wrestling tournament, the Weber High Warriors had ended the streak of state titles for Viewmont at three. The Warriors were as good as advertised scoring 241.5 points, 91.5 points ahead of Viewmont.

Viewmont still brought home hardware, holding off Bingham and Pleasant Grove for second place.

“We knew how good Weber was and we knew Weber needed to have some mishaps in the early rounds for us to beat them,” Viewmont head coach Bart Thompson said. “They were experienced and came in knowing what they needed to do and flat out got the job done.”

Viewmont’s depth showed through as Taira Abe was the only Viking to reach the finals where he was stopped by Weber’s Shay Warren, 6-4.

“Taira wrestled real well,” Thompson said. “Shay is one of the best wrestlers in the entire state and Taira gave him all he could take. I’m real happy for Taira. He works very hard and is often under the radar on our team. He really deserved this.”

As for the team place, Thompson was philosophical.

“To finish in second with no state champs and just one finalist shows the character our team has,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he was concerned after Thursday night’s last round where the Vikings had slipped into third place and he knew the first round of the consolation round would be the key for the team.

“We had to win all seven matches in that first Friday round and the boys came out and did just that,” Thompson said. “It was huge and exciting and it showed our character because these guys could have just given up, but they didn’t.”

For Viewmont’s Mike Winger (103), Nate Larsen (112), and Sam Graham (171) all captured third place, while Steve Platt (125), Eric Call (160), Chase Hansen (189) and Jesse Farnsworth (215) placed 4th.

“Those third- and fourth- place finishers is what made it possible for us to take second and I’m real proud of those guys,” Thompson said. “The boys are proud of their achievement, but we all want our state title back, and work toward that starts this week.”