The Lehi wrestling team is going to open the season with
a trip to the Evanston Invitational next week.
Held
the first weekend of every December, the invitational is
one of the oldest prep wrestling tournaments in
southwestern Wyoming and draws teams from all over the
Intermountain area. The Pioneers have often opened their
competitive year at the event.
"It's a good opening for our season," said Lehi coach
Dan Rice. "There will be a lot of good schools at that
tournament.
"It will give guys a chance to wrestle opponents on
the same level as them. Freshmen, for example, will be
wrestling freshmen, so they don't killed by older
wrestlers.
"Seniors will have to wrestle varsity in the
tournament. It will be good learning experience for
them."
Rice said on the weekend after the Evanston
Invitational, the Pioneers will travel over to the
Wasatch Duals in Heber City.
The coach added, "The Wasatch tournament is going to
be pretty tough."
Rice said the purpose of participating in those first
two weekend tournaments is to prepare them for Region in
a hurry.
"They will figure that out real fast," the coach
added.
He said Springville is expected to be the toughest
wrestling team in Region 7.
"Springville is the team to beat this year," said the
coach. "Payson's young, but they're pretty solid. So are
Provo and Orem. Timpview is struggling this year, but
they have a few guys who're pretty good."
Rich said, "One half of our guys are young. Another
half are experienced wrestlers. We have back this year
only one guy who wrestled at State last season: Matt
Spencer. He took third in the state tournament. He and
Riley Sullivan are our team captains this year."
During the past summer, Rice recalled, "I took our
guys over to a wrestling camp in American Fork. That was
the only time we went as a team to a camp last summer.
We had guys who went as individuals to different camps
during the summer break. One of our guys even went to a
camp in Oklahoma."
The coach said that after the Pioneers had officially
began practicing, they held a meeting in which they
wrote down 10 goals they want to accomplish this year,
but those goals remain a team secret.
Rice's assistants this year are Scott Nelson and
Erick Duclos.