Jan. 6, 2008: The Salt Lake Tribune

Prep Wrestling: Spanish Fork Gets It Done
by Chhun Sun

WEST JORDAN — The Spanish Fork Dons walk around with pride knowing that they're a bunch of no names. That's what coach Dave Clark calls them.

In fact, they won't have any wrestlers competing in the All-Star Dual in nine days.

So the Dons just operate with two things in mind.

"You always try to get as many points as you can and don't give up," Clark said. "And there you go."

It's a simple concept, and it worked for Spanish Fork on Saturday night. The Dons pulled off victories against Taylorsville, Springville and Box Elder in the final day of the West Jordan Duals to capture the tournament title.

Three Dons - Kyle Weight, Dave Sorenson and Eric Kitchen - went through the two-day dual tournament undefeated. But it was the comeback performance of Kade Christenson in the 215-pound class that highlighted the 42-21 win over Box Elder in the championship dual.

Down 10-6 against Daniel Cook, Christenson had five straight points - two of them from a reversal - to win the match late in the third period.

By then, the Dons were leading 24-3. Clark feels blessed to even have Christenson around. Before the dual tournament, the Dons had to forfeit valuable points in competitions because they didn't have anyone to compete at 215.

Then recently, Clark asked Christenson - who took some time off to commit himself to such activities as hunting - to help the team. His response?

"Kade said, 'I'll wrestle for you.' So he comes out and you see him. He won like three matches here today," Clark said. "And he did a great job. That's kind of neat when you see that kind of stuff."

Down only 30-21 with three matches to go and knowing it can score as many as 18 points with back-to-back-to-back pins, Box Elder was in position for a comeback.

But Spanish Fork's Kaleb Ashworth (125), Nolan Haycock (130) and Tom Clark (135) destroyed that hope with three straight wins.