Taylor LaMont Takes Olympic Redshirt

OREM — Head Utah Valley University wrestling coach Greg Williams has announced that redshirt junior Taylor LaMont will take an Olympic redshirt this season and will miss the 2019-20 season for the Wolverines.

LaMont, who was recently awarded an alternate spot, will wrestle at the U23 Greco-Roman World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in early November in hopes of earning a spot at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in April. The U23 World Championships will run Oct. 28-Nov. 3 at Ludovika Arena in Budapest.

The U23 Greco World Championships will mark LaMont's unprecedented seventh-straight age-group World Championship appearance and first at the U23 level. He has represented the USA at the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Cadet World Championships as well as the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Junior World Championships.

In 2016, LaMont won a Junior World bronze medal. In 2015 and 2017, he registered fifth-place finishes. Budapest will mark LaMont's first international event since his 2018 Junior World showing.

Outside of his international success, LaMont also owns an impressive domestic resume.

As an age-group athlete, LaMont was a four-time Fargo champion, winning two titles in Greco-Roman and two in freestyle. Additionally, he was third at the 2018 Senior U.S. Open and the 2019 World Team Trials Challenge Tournament. Most recently, he was runner-up at the U23 World Team Trials, giving him the position as first alternate for the 2019 U23 World Team.

As a redshirt freshman in 2017-18, LaMont was an NCAA qualifier for the Wolverines in which he reached the 'blood round'. He also became UVU's first Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational champion on the season and compiled a 27-5 record for the Wolverines. He also capped his freshman season by earning by NWCA Scholar All-American and first team academic All-Big 12 honors.

By taking an Olympic waiver this season, the 2019-20 campaign will mark the third season out of four years that LaMont will be sidelined for UVU. After redshirting as a true freshman in 2016-17, LaMont then wrestled his redshirt freshman year in 2017-18 in which he earned a program-best No. 7 seed at the NCAA Championships. He then missed 2018-19 with an injury and is now set to take an Olympic redshirt in 2019-20. LaMont was slated to start for the Wolverines at 133 pounds and was highly nationally ranked in a number of preseason polls.

LaMont (60 kg) will be one of two Wolverines that will compete at the upcoming U23 Greco World Championships, as redshirt sophomore Tate Orndorff will also compete for the U.S. at the renowned tournament at 130 kg. Orndorff, who was an NCAA qualifier for UVU a season ago, earned an automatic spot at the U23 World Championships after winning a U23 Greco World Team Trial title in May.

Orndorff and LaMont will open the U23 Greco World Championships on Nov. 1 and 2, respectively, in Budapest.

The Wolverines, who welcome back five returning NCAA qualifiers this season in Matt Findlay (149 pounds), Demetrius Romero (165), Kimball Bastian (174), Tanner Orndorff (184) and Tate Orndorff (heavyweight), will open the 2019-20 campaign by hosting the UVU Intrasquad Dual on Oct. 30 at 6:30 p.m. at Lockhart Arena. The season will then officially get underway that Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Cowboy Open in Laramie, Wyoming.