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Orem • Grant LaMont didn't need long to get his sixth pin of the weekend.
Facing Payson's Zac Loveless for the second time this season, LaMont knew what buttons to push, what speed to work. It was less than a minute and a half before the junior had two-time state champ Loveless on his back.
"I knew I had to go strong," LaMont said. "It's the second time I've beaten him, and I just keep pushing the pace."
LaMont's school, Maple Mountain, has similarly taken almost no time at all — on a relative scale — to establish itself as arguably the state's best wrestling program. It took another step toward earning that title on Saturday, winning The Rumble tournament at Utah Valley University.
To get the team title, the Golden Eagles had to best Pleasant Grove, Delta and Payson — three of the strongest traditional powers in the state. But led by LaMont at 138 pounds — he was named one of the tournament's most outstanding wrestlers — and Kimball Bastian at 152, Maple Mountain took home one of the most prestigious team titles in the West.
They had to sweat out first place, waiting on a few consolation matches. But by the time the heaviest wrestlers were competing, the win was assured. And despite winning in only the program's third year of existence, LaMont emphasized that Maple Mountain has come a long way since its beginnings.
"It's kind of awesome that a third-year can do this," he said. "We've matured a lot. When we first started, we were all freshmen and sophomores. But our whole team is just getting more focused."
That didn't mean Payson, the second-place finisher, didn't go home with some hardware as well. In the 132-pound match, Jed Mellen came away with the highlight of the tournament when he beat Centennial's Hayden Tuma, the No. 7-ranked wrestler in that class in the country.
Tuma had previously defeated Mellen at the Reno Tournament of Champions earlier in the season. Mellen took the loss to heart, and said he spent the past three weeks training just in anticipation of a rematch with Tuma.
So when the Payson junior toppled Tuma with an overtime takedown for a 4-2 decision, Mellen said it would go in his gallery of matches as one of his most meaningful wins.
"I definitely wanted him," he said. "I trained for him — I knew I wanted to go right for him. He was just as hard to wrestle this time, but it felt great to beat him."
Payson also fared well in rematches from Monday's All-Star Duals. Mitch Brown again beat Brighton's Rami Haddadin in an 10-2 major decision, and Cole Ford avenged an earlier defeat against three-time state champ Jeff McCormick of South Summit.
Pleasant Grove finished third, led by first-place finishes from Korbin Levin and Zachary Dawe. Levin looked dominant in a 9-1 decision, while Dawe set off an interesting subplot for the upcoming 5A state championships by pinning Alta's Shad Ennis.
Outside the top teams, there were a variety of intriguing matchups, particularly early on. Cedar's Dusty Hone nabbed the 113-pound title with consecutive wins over Alta's Matt Findlay and Maple Mountain's Britain Carter — both state champions last year.
Hone lost to Carter in one of his first matches of the season, but he prevailed in a tightly contested 2-1 overtime decision. Even though Hone won earlier in the week at the All-Star Duals, he regarded his Rumble title as even more important.
"This one feels great, making up for that one-point loss at the beginning of the season," Hone said. "It's a work in progress, and I'm still trying to get better. But this is a big one for sure."
Finals in The Rumble
106 • Kyle Robison (Millard) 5-2 dec. over Josh Pettus (Hurricane)
113 • Dusty Hone (Cedar) 2-1 overtime dec. over Britain Carter (Maple Mountain)
120 • Korbin Levin (Pleasant Grove) 9-1 major dec. over Andrew Cunningham (Bonney Lake)
126 • Mitch Brown (Payson) 10-2 major dec. over Rami Haddadin (Brighton)
132 • Jed Mellen (Payson) 4-2 overtime dec. over Hayden Tuma (Centennial)
138 • Grant LaMont (Maple Mountain) 1:31 pin over Zac Loveless (Payson)
145 • Cole Ford (Payson) 2-1 dec. over Jeff McCormick (South Summit)
152 • Kimball Bastian (Maple Mountain) 7-2 dec. over Tyler Nielson (Delta)
160 • Austin Dewey (Centennial) 7-3 dec. over Dane Nielson (Delta)
170 • Kyle Foy (Altamont) 3:35 pin over Zach Coffman (Tooele)
182 • Kayden Del toro (Curtis) 8-1 dec. over J.J. Larson (Bingham)
195 • Brandon Fisher (Shadow Ridge) 5-2 dec. over Ryan Petersen (Delta)
220 • Brian Scott (Hurricane) 4:26 pin over Landon Carter (Manti)
285 • Zachary Dawe (Pleasant Grove) 5:45 pin over Shad Ennis (Alta) —
The Rumble final team standings
First • Maple Mountain, 255 points (Individual winners: Grant LaMont*, Kimball Bastian)
Second • Payson, 251 points (Individual winners: Mitch Brown, Jed Mellen*, Cole Ford)
Third • Pleasant Grove, 210 points (Individual winners: Korbin Levin, Zachary Dawe)
*Named outstanding wrestlers of the tournament