High school wrestling: Pleasant Grove dominates Region 4 tournament

HIGHLAND — Pleasant Grove flexed its muscle with strength in numbers Friday night at the Region 4 wrestling tournament at Lone Peak High School.

Sixteen Vikings placed in the top four of their respective weight classes, a total that included five first-place finishes. The top four from each weight class qualify for the state tournament, except in the 112, 130, 171 and 285 weight classes, where only three qualify.

The 5A state wrestling tournament is set for Feb. 11-13 at Utah Valleyis McKay Center in Orem.

Chad Slocum, Pleasant Grove assistant coach, says the victory is the result of a season's worth of hard work.

"It was really a team effort, and something that we've been doing all year long,� he said. "It's slowly built up to this point."

Individual winners for Pleasant Grove included Korbin Levin (103 pounds), Dustin Young (119), Craig Young (119), Clint Jacob (145) and Alex Nicholes (152).

Pleasant Grove battled all night with Spanish Fork, as the Vikings and Dons went head-to-head in six finals matches. Pleasant Grove came out on top in four of those, enabling them to take the team title, 275.5 points to the Dons' 202.5.

Spanish Fork's Kaleb Ashworth and Tom Clark won the 135 and 140 weight classes, respectively.

Teammate Eric Kitchen was victorious in perhaps the most exciting match of the night in the 215-pound final against the Vikings' Parker Dawe. After pausing while appearing shaken up, Dawe recorded the first point of the match with an escape.

It remained 1-0 until Kitchen suffered an injury to his left knee at the end of the second period. But Kitchen regrouped, scoring three straight points, before taking control and eventually pinning Dawe.

Spanish Fork head coach Dave Clark knew that Pleasant Groveis depth would be hard to overcome.

"I'm a little disappointed because we couldn't find a way to win, but I'll tell you what, I'm really proud of these kids," he said. "They battled hard."

Timpanogos' Tyler Reese recorded a dramatic win in the 112-pound division. Competing against Josh Hones of Pleasant Grove, Reese jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, before Jones slowly crawled back into contention, eventually taking a 9-8 lead midway through the third and final period.

But Reese retook the lead on a reversal with 35 seconds remaining, then sealed the victory with two more points 27 seconds later.

With the region tournament out of the way, teams now turn their attention toward the state tournament.

"Our expectations are pretty high, so we can always find a way to do better," Slocum said. "We have high hopes for state, and we feel good going in."