March 15, 2007: Tooele-Transcript Bulletin

Goode Takes State Silver, Three County Grapplers Also Place
by Steve Schwartzman

Tooele High School junior Daniel Goode fought to a 3-1 record and a tough 6-5 loss to Delta's Dustin Peterson in finals to settle for a silver-medal finish at the Utah High School Activities Association wrestling championships Saturday at Utah Valley State College.

Goode's setback in the title tilt gave him a glossy overall record of 33-6 to aid his state silver medal and Region 11 gold finish in the 140-pound division.

The Buffs also had a pair of 3A Tooele County competitors place at the prestigious state meet. In the 152 division, Monte Schmalhaus placed fifth overall with a 4-2 record with one win by fall. Jake Foster placed fifth also in the 171 division with a 4-2 record overall to finish off his high school grappling career.

Dugway also cherished its first-ever state wrestler, Jake Davis, with a bronze state medal in the Class 1A State finals at 189 pounds. The Mustang senior powered his way to a 3-1 overall record in the postseason meet to battle to the medal without a coach.

Buffs Place at State

Goode, Schmalhaus and Foster helped the Buff squad battle to a 14th-place team finish in the final state standings.

Wasatch captured the coveted team crown with 238 points and North Sanpete garnered the silver team trophy with 171.5 team points, just .5 ahead of third-place finisher Uintah at 171. Delta grabbed fourth place with 133.5 followed by Dixie (129), Hurricane (117.5), Carbon (101), Bear River (98), Logan (98), Pine View (93), Cedar City (75), Morgan (57.5), Snow Canyon (55), Tooele (54), Canyon View (48), Union (39), Juan Diego (16.5), Ogden (12), Emery (11), Ben Lomond (10) and Grantsville (1), respectively. Granite, Judge Memorial and Park City all failed to produce team points in the two-day event at UVSC in Orem.

Goode drew a first-round bye and fought past Dixie's Jesse Nyberg with a takedown in overtime to pull off a 7-5 triumph in the quarterfinals. The Buff junior also posted a hard-fought 9-7 victory over Uintah's Kade Ablanalp in the semis to earn a berth in the title tilt.

In the championship match, Peterson registered an escape, penalty point and takedown to claim a 4-0 lead after two periods expired. Goode earned a point for his opponent stalling to begin the third to close to within 4-1. But a takedown just seconds later vaulted Peterson to a 6-1 cushion. Goode made a valiant effort in the waning seconds with an escape, takedown and penalty point but time ran out and Peterson held on for the one-point title triumph and 140-pound crown.

Schmalhaus began the state tourney with a 6-3 win over Delta's Kipp Holman in the opening round but dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to Uintah's Justin Curtice in the quarters. To make things even more painful, Curtice went on to seize the state title in the 152-weight class with two more victories in succession.

Meanwhile, Schmalhaus quickly regrouped to pin North Sanpete's Jordan Walker in 2:12 and blanked Canyon View's Clay Allred, 7-0, to earn a berth in the medal round. Delta's Cody Maxfield toppled the Buff sophomore with a 13-6 triumph, thanks to a 10-point second period. But Schmalhaus bounced back with a 4-3 triumph over Logan's Jordan Ballam in the fifth-sixth place match to earn his first state medal with two more years of prep eligibility remaining in his prep career at THS. Schmalhaus rounded out the campaign with a 33-9 overall mark on the season.

Foster followed suit at 171 for Tooele. The Buff senior handed Pine View's Collin Haskell a 7-4 loss in the first round but Uintah's Jared Ruppe pinned Foster in the quarters to spoil the Buff grapplers bid for a state crown. Foster responded with a 7-0 whitewash of Dixie's Whit Bundy and a 5-4 decision over Wasatch's Josh Provost to earn a berth in the medal round. Dixie's Tanner Torres pinned Foster in the placing round but the Buff bounced back to whip Wasatch's Kaleb Mortiz 14-0 in the fifth-sixth place match to help put the finishing touch on a 31-11 overall record on the season.

In the 103 division, Braeden Torgensen of Tooele finished with a 1-2 record as Buffalo Jake Prather fell to a 0-2 finish on the meet. Grantsville's Corey Gunderson also dropped his first two matches in the state meet for the Cowboys as well.

The Buff 119 duo of Jake Golden and Travis Gustufson both finished with 1-2 records for the meet and the season as Tooele's Chris Heaps fell to 0-2 to finish off his season at 125.

THS' Jesse Bissegger went 0-2 in the 130 division as Grantsville's Torree Powell finished off at 1-2 at 135.

Tooele's Zeb Hansen went 2-2 with a pin and fell just one win shy of placing for THS at 145 while Grantsville's Chance Rowely went 0-2 in the same weight division.

Seth Kreiser of GHS finished at 0-2 in the 171 division as THS' Isaac Brown went 1-2 to finish off his season at 189.

Jake Templeton (215 pounds) and Jace Hart (285) of Grantsville both went 0-2 in the final two weight classes to finish off the 3A season for Tooele County grapplers.

Lone Dugway competitor takes bronze in 1A bracket

Dugway senior Jake Davis went 3-1 with two falls to capture the bronze medal in the UHSAA 1A state finals in the 189 division.

Davis was the lone competitor for the Mustangs, and amazingly enough, managed the bronze medal season with no team or coach, traveling to Grantsville High for occasional practices and mainly self teaching. Davis was the first Dugway competitor in history to qualify for state finals.

The Mustang senior nailed Monticello's Chad Sonderegger in 3:07 to begin the state meet Friday. However, Altamont's LaDell Brinkerhoff upended Davis in the state semis with a pin at 5:42.

Davis battled back to nail Panguitch's Russel Moore to the mat in 2:45 to advance into the placing round and battled past Whitehorse's Lyle Sam with a hard-fought 5-4 decision to claim the third place finish at 189 pounds.

Along with his state accomplishments, Davis also placed fourth at the Enterprise tournament, and finished fourth in the region finals in Altamont.