Pleasant Grove places 2nd at the Prestigious Reno TOC
December 21st marked the beginning of winter and the conclusion of the annual Reno Tournament of Champions, which is billed as "the toughest tournament in America." 110 high school teams from across the country competed in the prestigious tournament, including 12 from the State of Utah. At the conclusion, Utah's Pleasant Grove High School took home the runner-up team trophy for its 2nd place finish in the 110 team field. Perennial California wrestling powerhouse, Poway High School, took home top honors. Pleasant Grove was not the only team to represent the state well, as Maple Mountain also finished in the top ten (No. 8), while Herriman and Wasatch made high finishes at Nos. 17 and 22 respectively.
Three of the tournament's individual champions hailed from Utah high schools, including Cedar City's Dusty Hone (132 lbs.), Maple Mountain's Kimball Bastian (170 lbs.) and Pleasant Grove's Zach Dawe (285 lbs.). Hone has already signed to wrestle for Oklahoma State next season, and Bastian has signed with Utah Valley. Dawe has made a verbal commitment to play football at BYU. These three individual champions are not the only ones to fair we'll at the tournament as there were many individual placers from Utah as well:
106 lbs: Nelson Jones, Pl. Grove (4th), Braiden Parker, Wasatch (8th);
113 lbs: Kyson Levin, Pl. Grove (2nd), Chandler Strand, Herriman (3rd);
126 lbs: Taylor LaMont, Maple Mtn. (3rd);
132 lbs: Jaron Jensen, Herriman (6th);
138 lbs: Matt Findlay, Alta (3rd), Johnny O'Hearon, Maple Mtn. (7th);
145 lbs: Branson Ashworth, Sp. Fork (5th);
152 lbs: Spencer Heywood, Wasatch (2nd), Zach Collangello, West (6th), Brooks Robinson, Maple Mtn. (8th);
160 lbs: Jacob Armstrong, Salem Hills, (2nd);
170 lbs: TJ Wind, Pl. Grove (8th);
180 lbs: Will Lang, West (4th);
285 lbs: Brackin Stringham, Lehi (5th), Stephen L'Hureaux, West Jordan (6th).
In addition to the individual placers, several Utah schools had significant contributions from team members who came within a match of placing themselves: (James Wright, Sp. Fork; Jacob Discher, Wasatch; Ben Anderson, Pl. Grove; Jordan McRae, Bingham; Josh Anderson, Pl. Grove; Bailey Carlson, Pl. Grove; Kenner French, Herriman; Shane French, Herriman; Marcos Garcia, Pl. Grove; and Wade French, Herriman). Clearly Utah has top level wrestling talent that compete with and beat many of the nation' top high school wrestling programs.
With the Christmas moratorium now in effect, our wrestling teams will gear up for what appears to be a highly competitive second half of the season starting in early January, and then pushing towards the state championships in February.