Feb. 19, 2008: Tooele-Transcript Bulletin

Tooele's Schmalhaus Wins State Title
by Mark Watson

All the extra running and wrestling against strong competition from other schools and his own teammates paid off in a big way Friday night for Monte Schmalhaus.

Tooele High's 152-pounder defeated Box Elder's Kolby Williamson 3-2 in triple overtime in the 4A finals at Utah Valley State College to win a state championship.

"It was one of the best feelings I've ever had to know that all the hard work paid off," Schmalhaus said.

The final match was deadlocked at two points each and neither wrestler could manage a takedown in the first two overtimes. Schmalhaus scored a takedown in the third overtime to win the championship.

"Monte really enjoys wrestling. He practices hard and goes to a lot of tournaments including Greco and Freestyle tournaments," said coach Gary Coffman.

"I tried hard all year and did all the extra stuff like waking up in the morning and running before school. I also had good partners to wrestle against in practice with (Isaac) Brown and (Daniel) Goode," he said.

Schmalhaus, a junior, moved to Tooele three years ago from a small town in Colorado. Last year he finished fifth in 3A competition at 152. He plans to wrestle again next year for the Buffs.

He said coaches Coffman and Dean Wilson and his dad helped him succeed.

"My dad was my wrestling coach in little league and he still wrestles against me," Schmalhaus said.

The state champ started wrestling when he was 3 years old. He finished this year with a 40-3 record.

Schmalhaus defeated Brady Loveless of Payson in the semifinals by decision after he had won his first two matches in the tournament by falls. He won his third match by decision.

As a team Tooele finished 14th out of 22 teams at the tournament with 42 points. Mountain Crest edged out Box Elder to win the state championship.

Schmalhaus scored 24 team points for the Buff while Isaac Brown at 215 pounds added 11 team points.

Brown pinned his first two opponents and ended up finishing sixth at the tourney with a 3-3 record. For the year Brown compiled a 30-10 record.

Also scoring points at the tourney for the Buffs were Manning Thomas at 135 and Zeb Hansen at 160.

After losing his opening match, Manning came back to win a match in the consolation round.

Hansen pinned his first opponent and later won a major decision.

Also qualifying for the state competition were Jake Prather, Chris Heaps, Kroeger Koleton and Joel Spendlove.

Tooele probably would have finished in the top 10 if they would have had the services of Daniel Goode at 135. Goode was disqualified at region and did not participate in the state meet. The wrestler who won the state championship at 135 was the same wrestler who defeated Goode at region. After that defeat, Goode was disqualified for shoving his opponent.

"With Daniel we could have scored another 24 points and finished much higher," Coffman said.

Overall, he was pleased with his wrestlers' efforts.

"We were disappointed that we did not finish higher at region and state, but we placed well at some top tournaments this year," he said.