Jan. 29, 2008: Tooele-Transcript Bulletin

Grapplers Continue to Impress with Strong Outing at Pine View Tourney
by Mark Watson

Tooele High wrestlers finished in fourth place at the 40-team Pine View wrestling tournament last weekend in St. George. Tooele coaches said they were elated with the strong finish and the way their wrestlers are performing with region and state tournaments coming up in the next two weeks.

Daniel Goode and Monte Schmalhaus went undefeated for the tournament to capture championships in their respective weight classes. Goode claimed the championship in the 135-pound class while Schmalhaus ruled the 152-pound class.

Zeb Hansen at 160 pounds wrestled his way to the championship match to finish second while Chris Heaps at 140 finished fifth. Austin Hansen at 145 and Isaac Brown at 215 both placed sixth and Jake Golden at 125 finished eighth.

Wrestling power Mountain Crest captured the tournament team championship with a score of 258 followed by Spanish Fork at 189, Pine View at 158 and Tooele at 150. Reno and Green Valley high schools from Nevada tied for fifth place with a score of 135.

Goode won five matches during the tournament to run his record to 30-6 on the season. He defeated his first three opponents by falls and won two close decisions in the semi-finals and finals.

Schmalhaus also won five matches including two falls in the first two rounds and close decisions in his final three matches.

Zeb Hansen pinned three opponents and won one match by decision until facing Mountain Crest's Ethen Lofthouse in the championship match which Lofthouse won by a fall.

Heaps won three matches by falls until losing in the semi-finals to Tom Clark of Spanish Fork. The effort, however, was good enough to place sixth.

Austin Hansen finished in fifth place winning five matches and losing two.

Brown reached the semi-finals by pinning his first three opponents. He lost two matches in the consolation round to finish sixth.

Golden won four matches and lost two to place eighth.

Also competing for Tooele at the Pine View event were Taft Miller at 103, Braedon Torgensen at 112, Jake Prather at 119, Jimmy Searle at 130, Zach Huntsman at 171 and Nate Collier at 189.

Tooele also had an easy time defeating Orem High 72-7 last Thursday with several forfeits and strong showings by the Buffs.

Prather pinned his man in the second period; Goode pinned his opponent in the second period; Heaps and Austin Hansen pinned their men in the first period; Schmalhaus pinned his opponent in the second period.

Brown pinned his man in the second period and Joel Spendlove pinned his foe in the third period.

Tooele wrestles in a region junior varsity tournament on Thursday with the top two finishers in each weight group qualifying for the varsity region tournament Feb. 8 at Orem High. The state tournament will be held at Utah Valley State College Feb. 12-14.