November 2004: Wrestling USA Magazine, Today's Wrestling News

Utah Wrestling Coaches Association Announces Preseason 5A Rankings: Predicts Viewmont to Win Another Title

Nov. 4, 2004 - The Utah Wrestling Coaches Association released its preseason rankings for the 5A division. For teams, the list cites Vierwmont High School as winning another state title, followed by Davis High School and Weber High School.

Predicted state champions in the 13 weight divisions were drawn from 11 high schools: Brighton, Davis, Hillcrest, Hunter, Jordan, Kearns, Northridge, Riverton, Viewmont, Weber and West Jordan. Of those predicted state champions, six are predicted to be repeat champions from the 2003­2004 season. But the most telling information may be in evaluating team depth. Although Viewmont is predicted to win the state title, Davis has the most ranked athletes (10), followed by Viewmont with nine, West Jordan with eight, and Alta with seven.

Following are the preseason team and individual rankings.

Team Preseason Rankings
1st Viewmont High School
2nd Davis High School
3rd Weber High School
4th Alta High School
5th Riverton High School
6th West Jordan High School
7th Brighton High School
8th Bingham High School
9th Northridge High School
10th Hunter High School

Region 1
1st Viewmont High School
2nd Davis High School
3rd Weber High School
4th Northridge High School
5th Layton High School
6th Clearfield High School
7th Fremont High School

Region 2
1st Alta High School
2nd Riverton High School
3rd West Jordan High School
4th Brighton High School
5th Bingham High School
6th Hillcrest High School
7th Jordan High School
8th Copper Hills High School

Region 3
1st Hunter High School
2nd Kearns High School
3rd Taylorsville High School
4th Skyline High School
5th Cottonwood High School
6th Granger High School

Individual
103
1st Jesse Betts, Northridge High School (11)
2nd Rhett Keaton, Davis High School (11)
3rd Tyson Jackson, Viewmont High School (12)
4th Chris Julkunen, Riverton High School (10)
5th Josh David, Kearns High School (11)
6th Brayden Capson, West Jordan High School (11)

112
1st Michael Watts, Riverton High School (12)
2nd Spencer Ito, Northridge High School (11)
3rd Josh Pappas, Taylorsville High School (12)
4th Josh Baker, Davis High School (10)
5th Dorian Varela, Riverton High School (12)
6th Casey Smoot, Viewmont High School (10)

119
1st Shay Warren, Weber High School (10)
2nd Jaren Day, Alta High School (11)
3rd Tyson Petroff, Layton High School (12)
4th Stuart Richards, Riverton High School (12)
5th Dustin Parke, Davis High School (12)
6th Jesse Clark, Bingham High School (11)

125
1st Aaron Ross, Weber High School (10)
2nd Blake Griffiths, Bingham High School (10)
3rd KC Nate, Brighton High School (10)
4th Luke Rasmussen, Alta High School (10)
5th Spencer Smoot, Viewmont High School (11)
6th Cole Unsworth, Northridge High School (12)

130
1st Sean Porter, Davis High School (10)
2nd Ryan Green, Alta High School (11)
3rd Marcus Howells, Brighton High School (11)
4th Matt Toone, Fremont High School (12)
5th Kyler McCarty, Davis High School (12)
6th Jason Greaves, West Jordan High School (12)

135
1st Shay Lawrence, Viewmont High School (12)
2nd Weston Harris, Hunter High School (12)
3rd Jake Bastian, Northridge High School (12)
4th Todd Squires, Davis High School (12)
5th Cory Ramsey, Kearns High School (120
6th Jake Gaston, West Jordan High School (12)

140
1st Jared Young, Kearns High School (12)
2nd Josh Egan, Brighton High School (12)
3rd Matt Mann, Viewmont High School (12)
4th Weston Maurer, Alta High School (11)
5th Chris Chidester, Cottonwood High School (11)
6th Dan Garner, Riverton High School (12)

145
1st Jake Myler, Hunter High School (12)
2nd Jeff Job, West Jordan High School (11)
3rd Dylan Nelson, Viewmont High School (12)
4th Steve Michels, Alta High School (11)
5th Mitch Conney, Weber High School (12)
6th Joey Nichols, Kearns High School (12)

152
1st Steven Freestone, Jordan High School (12)
2nd Ryan Moore, Bingham High School (12)
3rd David Wiser, Viewmont High School (12)
4th Spencer Evans, Davis High School (11)
5th Mark Beatty, Northridge High School (11)
6th Ryan Kirk, Alta High School (11)

160
1st Talon Knox, Brighton High School (11)
2nd Trevor Park, Riverton High School (12)
3rd Jake Schwab, Davis High School (12)
4th Brian Lipsett, Cottonwood High School (12)
5th Jeff Tree, Kearns High School (11) 
6th Matt Webb, Brighton High School (11)

171
1st Danny Eason, West Jordan High School (12)
2nd Ryan Moat, Layton High School (12)
3rd John Cragun, Davis High School (12)
4th Jeff Webster, Taylorsville High School (12)

189
1st Jorge Lopez, Weber High School (11)
2nd Nathan Shepherd, Bingham High School (12)
3rd Jordan Birch, Copper Hills High School (12)
4th Jesse Kearsley, Clearfield High School (12)
5th Ty Webster, Davis High School (12)
6th Colby Barber, Brighton High School (11)

215
1st Robert Takeno, Hillcrest High School (12)
2nd Jere Glore, West Jordan High School (11)
3rd John Mahe, West Jordan High School (11)
4th Mason Milligan, Viewmont High School (12)

275
1st Rio Stotler, West Jordan High School (12)
2nd Nic Garcia, Clearfield High School (11)
3rd Austin Curtis, Layton High School (12)
4th Ray Gunderson, Alta High School (12)
5th Clayton Ashdown, Weber High School (12)
6th Chris Mortenson, Viewmont High School (11)

Breakdown by School

Davis High School: 10
Viewmont High School: 9
West Jordan High School: 8
Alta High School: 7
Brighton High School: 6
Riverton High School: 6
Kearns High School: 5
Northridge High School: 5
Weber High School: 5
Bingham High School: 4
Layton High School: 3
Clearfield High School: 2
Cottonwood High School: 2
Hunter High School: 2
Taylorsville High School: 2
Copper Hills High School: 1
Fremont High School: 1
Hillcrest High School: 1
Jordan High School: 1

The preseason rankings are compiled by multiple 5A high school wrestling coaches, working in concert. For more information about wresting in Utah, go to UtahWrestling.org or call (801) 641-9832.