March 2007:
South Valley Journal
Bingham High Wrestling Finishes Season Strong
by Skyler Hutchison
Bingham wrestlers recently took second at region,
finishing behind Hunter. But head coach Russ Paulsen said
he’d “take the tradeoff” of taking second at region and
third at state instead of taking first at region and
tanking at state like Hunter did. At the state tournament
held Feb. 7 to 9, Bingham finished third while Hunter
placed 14th.
“It’s good to see the team do as well as we did this
year,” said senior Mitch Moss. “It wasn’t expected for us
to do that well.”
With 42 wrestlers on the team, Bingham had six of them
place in the state tournament, with four making it to the
finals. Three of the four walked away with state titles.
“That’s the most I’ve ever had in the finals,” said
Paulsen, now in his 24th year at Bingham. “I would call it
a good year.”
Moss proved he was the real deal, winning his second state
championship in the 130-pound weight class. He won as a
sophomore at 103 pounds but as a junior at 119 pounds
placed fourth.
“To win and then place lower and now to come back and win
a second championship, shows that he has a lot of
character,” Paulsen said.
After his state title win, Moss said, “It feels good to be
the state champ but it’s just as good to see your team do
as well as they did.”
Senior captain and team leader Blake Griffiths had the
most difficult bracket with several top wrestlers in his
135-pound weight class. In fact, he and three wrestlers
who had previously defeated him during the regular season
fell into the same bracket. But that didn’t stop him from
his goal. He went on to defeat the three of them: junior
Ky Lucero from Brighton, senior Bo Beckman from Pleasant
Grove and senior Josh Baker from Davis.
Junior Ryker Vandertoolen at 112 pounds made it to the
finals but took second to Keola Goodman of Pleasant Grove.
At the state tournament, he defeated returning state
champion junior Nate Larsen from Viewmont for the second
time this season.
Sophomore Riley Adamson took third in his weight class
(125 pounds) after being beaten by four-time state
champion Shay Warren. Junior Spencer Paulson’s performance
has been consistently solid this season. He placed in all
his events, taking first place in region and sixth place
at the state tournament.
Also helping the team by scoring points but not placing
were Seth Anderson, Spencer Harris, Andrew Park and Joe
Bradshaw. Eight of the 13 qualifiers for the state
tournament will be returning to wrestle next year, making
a total of 10 lettermen.
“That should form a good returning team,” Paulsen said.
“It will depend on their off-season and what those
returning do to prepare for next year.”
|