Dec.
19, 2004: Deseret Morning News
Darts Dominate Tourney
by Michael Black
VIEWMONT— For Davis wrestling coach Alan
Porter, the Viewmont Invitational Wrestling Tournament
turned out to be one great big reunion.
Porter and Viewmont coach Bart Thompson
were team wrestling captains together at Davis during
their high school days, so coming to Thompson's mats and
pitting the two teams together adds a little extra
incentive.
"Bart and I have been friends a long
time," said Porter. "It really is kind of fun for both of
us to get our teams together like this."
On Saturday, it was Porter's team that
dominated the competition as the Darts ran away with the
team score, upsetting the host and defending state
champion, Viewmont, 223.5-207.5. Bingham finished a
distant third at 162 points and Brighton tallied 154.5.
Besides competing against his former
teammate, Porter has one son who helps coach the Darts and
another son who wrestles. Sean Porter is only a sophomore,
but he is also a returning state champion. He cruised
through the 130-pound division, earning his team valuable
points and taking home the title with a technical fall
against Trace Vanorden of Layton.
But other than Sean Porter helping the
team, coach Porter gives much of the credit for the team's
outstanding results to his other son, Neal Porter, an
assistant coach.
"I can tell the kids to do something a
thousand times, and maybe I see some results, but (Neal)
says something to them and it is just gospel," Alan Porter
said.
The Darts are currently ranked No. 2 in
5A, but considering they were trailing only Viewmont, they
are currently the team to beat.
"I have some great team leadership in my
seniors," Porter said. "That, and we had a great
quarterfinal round today advancing nine wrestlers to the
semis. I was happy with my seniors, and my sophomores were
great with four out of five placing."
Thompson was equally impressed with how
the Darts stepped up. "Davis looked really good. I was
kind of hoping they weren't as good as everyone thought
they would be, but they are every bit as good as
expectations," he said.
The Darts took home the team title, but
there were several other individuals who stood out on the
mats. Riverton's Michael Watts, a returning state
champion, won the 119-pound division and was named the
lower-weights outstanding wrestler of the tournament.
Talan Knox, also a defending champion, won in the
160-pound class and took home the upper-weights title of
outstanding wrestler.
Bountiful's Cameron George continued his
masterful season. After winning the Layton tournament a
couple weeks ago, he ran his record to 14-0 by sweeping
through the 135-pound division and adding another title.
"These tournaments are fun because you see
more competition," George said. "You have to save yourself
a little bit and wrestle more than just once, plus you get
to see how well your team does. It gets you ready for
state."
If this tournament was any indication, the
Darts are ready for state as well.
"I think that a lot of the time it just
comes down to how healthy you are," he said. "We have two
guys that are out that we can get back, but sometimes the
winner is just the healthiest team."
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