| A Carbon High wrestler finishes off his opponent during the Carbon Duels in December. Carbon is off to a 9-2-1 record this season. |
The Carbon Dino wrestlers kept the gold at home during the Carbon Duels for the first time in a few years and are looking to have a standout season. The only team that even really challenged Carbon at the duels was 2-A standout Duchesne who fell to the Dino’s in the championship match 47 to 24.
“This is our most dominating performance ever at this tournament,” said Carbon wrestling coach Dave Smith. “Our kids performed far better than I had any right to expect this early in the season. I am proud to be their coach.”
According to Smith the Dino’s owe there standout victory to conditioning obtained by two-a-day practicing. “We lost very few close matches all tournament long and that is a testament to the shape these kids are in,” finished Smith
Carbon then wrestled Emery Dec. 6 to battle for the ax. According to Smith the winner of the Carbon-Emery wrestling duel will receive an ax to place in their trophy case for the year. The ax is meant to give life to the Carbon-Emery rivalry. Carbon won the match 59-12 in dominating fashion. Next Carbon bested state ranked Union High school 61-18. These duels led up to the Las Vegas invitational where the Dino’s had seven wrestlers in the championship standings and were ranked third overall during the first day of the 64 team tournament.
Tough seeding during the second day of competition landed Carbon an 11th place finish overall. “We had six kids lose close matches in the placement round or we could have placed third or fourth,” said coach Smith.
Carbon then traveled to Uintah and came away with a 37-37 tie against one of the top teams in the state. “It was the best I have ever seen us wrestle over there,” stated the Carbon High coach.
Next Carbon traveled to Delta on Dec. 29. The team had four junior varsity grappler’s seeing action on the varsity side, mainly due to injury, but Smith was still optimistic about the match.
“Delta beat us last year but they didn’t wrestle this team and I think they are in for a surprise,” said Smith.
The Dino’s 9-2-1 overall record has Smith ecstatic about the team’s opportunities for the coming region and state tournaments. “We could win it all,” concluded Smith.