BOUNTIFUL — If Mountain Crest keeps wrestling the way it did this weekend, the Mustangs might find themselves in possession of a state championship this February.
Competing against most of the elite teams in 5A and 4A, the Mustangs had the Viewmont Invitational title wrapped up before the championship matches even began Saturday night at the two-day competition.
Mountain Crest racked up 209 points to claim the title, followed by Mountain View with 180, Box Elder with 176 and Viewmont with 173. Evanston, Wyo., Pleasant Grove and Payson rounded out the top seven.
"We didn't win by all the champions we had, but by all the guys that wrestled in the consolation round," said Mountain Crest coach Davie Swensen.
One Mustang wrestler who really stood out was Nate Jackson. A runner-up at state a year ago, Jackson was stunned in the first round by Layton's R.J. Erickson at 171 pounds. He never got discouraged and battled all the way back to capture third.
Jackson was one of four Mountain Crest wrestlers who finished third.
"Those are our blue-collar kids," said Swensen.
Individual champions for the Mustangs were Josh Burnett at 103 pounds and Luke Lofthouse at 189 pounds.
Mountain View had the most individual champions with three. Isa Takahashi won at 119, Rod Raeder won at 171 and Garret Story won at 215.
Viewmont is obviously a little discouraged about losing its own tournament, but it's a tournament the Vikings have never won in 21 years.
The Vikings might've faired a little better had Ben Kjar been wrestling. Viewmont's two-time state champ was back in Delaware this weekend wrestling at the Beast of the East national competition. As of Saturday he had advanced to the quarterfinals.
"We have to learn to win without him," said Viewmont coach Bart Thompson.
Thompson still thought his team had a chance without Kjar, but some big quarterfinal losses Friday night prevented that.
E-MAIL: jedward@desnews.com