Although several of Tooele High School’s top wrestlers did not compete at the Cowboy Duels last weekend, the team was able to finish second against the other varsity teams at the meet.

The Tooele team now gets ready for a home meet tonight against Orem, and then will host the Best of the West tournament Friday and Saturday.

Two Tooele wrestlers went undefeated at the Cowboy Duels to capture first-place finishes. Kolter Kroeger went 5-0 with three pins, a technical fall and a decision to claim first place. Jake Prather also powered his way to a first-place prize with a 5-0 record which included three pins and two decisions.

Six Tooele grapplers finished in second place in varsity competition and another finished in second place in junior varsity action.

Nate Collier went 4-1 in the tourney with three pins and one decision to claim a second-place finish while Tyler Osterud also came through with a 4-1 record and second place. All of Osterud’s victories were pins. T.J. Porter cruised to a 3-1 record and second-place spot with two pins and a forfeit. The other two wrestlers to place second included Braden Torgensen and Thomas Sandoval. Torgensen pinned two of his opponents, won by decision and won by forfeit for a 4-1 record. Sandoval was 3-2 with two pins and a forfeit.

Tooele picked up a second place in junior varsity action when Jesse Condie pinned two opponents.

Jimmy Searle finished third in varsity action while Cassidy Adams and Tre Behunin each finished in fourth place.

Other wrestlers who participated in the meet were Zac Cavendar, Michael Crane, David Giles and Mike Thomas.

Tooele’s team won 45 matches and lost 30 at the Cowboy Duels.

It will be an exciting time for wrestling fans this weekend with powerhouse Delta coming to town for the Best of the West Tournament. Delta is expected to win the 3A championship this year and has captured first place in all its pre-season tournaments and has not lost a dual match.

“Delta, in my opinion, is the top team in the state overall with Payson and a couple of others,” said Tooele coach Gary Coffman. “We have a couple of new teams in this tournament like Copper Hills and Bonneville and we don’t really know how strong they will be.”

Tooele is also a talented team finishing first at the Carbon tournament and second at the Desert Storm tournament at Dixie High School.

Thirteen schools will participate with Tooele, Dixie and Delta each entering two teams to make for a field of 16 teams. In addition to Delta and Tooele, other top teams include Clearfield, Dixie, Cyprus and Kearns.

“We have a lot of good teams coming in and it should be a great tournament,” said Tooele wrestling coach Gary Coffman.

He said the 152 pound division features several excellent wrestlers including Tooele’s Austin Hansen, Grantsville’s Austyn Vickers, a wrestler from Carbon High School who finished sixth at state and a Delta wrestler who placed second in state.

Another highly competitive division will be at 135 where Chris Heaps of Tooele has a 17-1 record with his only loss to a wrestler from Delta. Tooele’s Thomas Manning of Tooele at 145 has only lost two matches all season to wrestlers from Delta.

“Joel Spendlove should be one of the favorites in the heavyweight division,” his coach said.

Tooele also has returning state champion Monte Schmalhaus at 160 who will be challenged by a wrestler from Delta who has only one loss this season and finished fourth at state last year.

Schmalhaus will also wrestle on Monday night at the high school all-star meet at Utah Valley University against a wrestler from Fremont in an invitation-only event. He is only the second wrestler in the history of Tooele High School to be invited to this event. The other one was four-time state champion Andrew Hochstrasser who now wrestles at Boise State and is ranked fourth in the nation.

Best of the West matches start at 3 p.m. on Friday and again at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Tooele High School. The championship matches will start around 4 or 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com