March 2007: South Valley Journal

Bingham High Wrestling Finishes Season Strong
by Skyler Hutchison

Bingham wrestlers recently took second at region, finishing behind Hunter. But head coach Russ Paulsen said he’d “take the tradeoff” of taking second at region and third at state instead of taking first at region and tanking at state like Hunter did. At the state tournament held Feb. 7 to 9, Bingham finished third while Hunter placed 14th.

“It’s good to see the team do as well as we did this year,” said senior Mitch Moss. “It wasn’t expected for us to do that well.”

With 42 wrestlers on the team, Bingham had six of them place in the state tournament, with four making it to the finals. Three of the four walked away with state titles.

“That’s the most I’ve ever had in the finals,” said Paulsen, now in his 24th year at Bingham. “I would call it a good year.”

Moss proved he was the real deal, winning his second state championship in the 130-pound weight class. He won as a sophomore at 103 pounds but as a junior at 119 pounds placed fourth.

“To win and then place lower and now to come back and win a second championship, shows that he has a lot of character,” Paulsen said.

After his state title win, Moss said, “It feels good to be the state champ but it’s just as good to see your team do as well as they did.”

Senior captain and team leader Blake Griffiths had the most difficult bracket with several top wrestlers in his 135-pound weight class. In fact, he and three wrestlers who had previously defeated him during the regular season fell into the same bracket. But that didn’t stop him from his goal. He went on to defeat the three of them: junior Ky Lucero from Brighton, senior Bo Beckman from Pleasant Grove and senior Josh Baker from Davis.

Junior Ryker Vandertoolen at 112 pounds made it to the finals but took second to Keola Goodman of Pleasant Grove. At the state tournament, he defeated returning state champion junior Nate Larsen from Viewmont for the second time this season.

Sophomore Riley Adamson took third in his weight class (125 pounds) after being beaten by four-time state champion Shay Warren. Junior Spencer Paulson’s performance has been consistently solid this season. He placed in all his events, taking first place in region and sixth place at the state tournament.

Also helping the team by scoring points but not placing were Seth Anderson, Spencer Harris, Andrew Park and Joe Bradshaw. Eight of the 13 qualifiers for the state tournament will be returning to wrestle next year, making a total of 10 lettermen.

“That should form a good returning team,” Paulsen said. “It will depend on their off-season and what those returning do to prepare for next year.”