The 1989 Utah Summer Games have drawn a "national" team to its Olympic-style athletic festival.
Okay, so it's only the Utah National Wrestling Team, the state's summer all-star squad that will compete next month at a prestigious national tournament in Iowa. But for now, the 36-member team is adding both quality and quantity to this week's Summer Games wrestling competition, with their specially designed warmups and uniforms really making them quite conspicuous - like a visiting national team.The Utah National Team, under the direction of prep coaches Greg Williams of Sky View and Chris Brown of Payson, in its fourth year of existence, is comprised of some of the top high school wrestlers from the state, such as Morgan's Adam Walker, Delta's Sean Thomas and others. The 36 earned their team membership following a summer camp that included tryouts among nearly 90 hopefuls.
That's a far cry from the team's first year, when Williams scraped together eight wrestlers to comprise a makeshift state team.
Next month, the Utah squad will be participating first in exhibition matches against similar teams in Wyoming and Nebraska before the national meet, where between 100 to 150 wrestlers in each weight competing at the same time on 22 different mats during the week-long combined Greco-Roman and freestyle competitions.
But for now, the Utah team is taking on all challengers at the Summer Games - and is expected to continue dominating all the weight divisions in Wednesday's finals as it did in Tuesday's preliminary matches. The team members were required to be at the Games as part of their training, which not only serves as additional conditioning but also offers increased exposure for the team's sponsors as well as its own image among younger wrestlers.
"Other kids are looking at it like it's something that can shoot for," says Brown.
And the adage this week for the younger, lesser experienced wrestlers could end up being - "if you can't beat them, join them."
Diving
The first day of competition in the first-year sport featured competition from the 1-meter board. The top cumulative scores of the day: Blaine Rindlishbacher of South Jordan, the gold medalist in the men's 16-18 age division with a score of 478.20; and Annie Mansell of Cottonwood, the women's 16-18 winner with a 403.50 score.
Girls' gymnastics
In the days' early Class IV competition, the top single-event scores came in the 9-11 compulsory floor exercises, with the Price pair of Cyrie Pincock and Jeri Tatton scoring 9.65 and 9.60, respectively. Tatton finished with the classifications' all-around gold.
And in the Class IV 12-14 division, the best scores were St. George's Amanda Kirkland with a good-for-gold 9.55 in the floor and Karen Cahoon with a 9.45 for tops in the compulsory bars.
Tuesday night's Class III event doubled as the USGF state championships, with the three age-division all-around titles going to Brittney Sandquist of Murray's Utah Academy of Gymnastics in the 9-11; Gina Gibbs of Wood Cross' Salto in the 12-14; and Laurel Simpson of Orem's All-America Gymnastics in the 15-plus. Salto edged Layton's North Davis for the top team score, 106.45 to 100.35.
The top individual-event scores of the Class III came on a 9.30 by Salto's Kaliee Wray in the bars and a 9.25 by Gibbs in the floor.
Track and field
Despite the blustery winds all day long, some 40-plus Summer Games records were set in the 12 total youth divisions.
In the young women's (or women's scholastic) division, Jeni Holbrook of Roy set new marks in the 100-meter dash (12.22 seconds) and 400-meter run (1:00.0) and added a third gold in the 200. Brent Palmer of West Jordan was a three-gold winner as well in the bantam boys' 400, 800 and 1,500, with Games records in the 400 (1:06.00) and 800 (2:38.0), too. And Tiffany Lott of American Fork was good for triple golds in the youth girls' long jump, 200 hurdles and 300 hurdles, while Darren Clarke of Fruit Heights was a three-event winner in the youth boys' 100, 200 and 400.
Dan Gansauge of Sandy, who set three Games marks last year in the youth boys' shot, javelin and discus, moved up to the intermediate division and had to settle for just two golds and two records in the shot (44 feet - nearly 10 feet better than the previous mark) and discus (125-1, more than 35 feet better than the old mark).
The dozen and a half other double-gold medalists in the TAC-sanctioned meet included Scott Cannon, Salt Lake City, bantam boys' high jump and shot put; Anne Perrin, Sandy, midget girls' 800 and 1,500; Janae Peel, American Fork, MG 100 and long jump; Joel Jorgensen, American Fork, midget boys' 100 and 200; David Holland, Highland, MB 400 and 800; Wendy Jorgensen, American Fork, youth girls' 100 and 200; Heather Whittaker, American Fork, YG high jump and triple jump; and Joshua Carrell, Kearns, youth boys' discus and 200 hurdles.