BOUNTIFUL -- Viewmont senior Moroni Redd had one of those weird moments Wednesday night. With his Viewmont Viking wrestling team clinging to a 29-24 lead, Redd's job was easy, in theory. Don't get pinned or lose on a technical fall (15- point decision) and his team would beat the no. 1 ranked Wasatch Wasps. Problem was, Redd's opponent was Jake Salazar, the nation's top-ranked athlete in his weight class who has signed to wrestle for the University of Michigan.

"I was not getting pinned or giving up the tech fall," Redd said. "I wrestled my match and did what we needed to win as a team."

Redd lost to Salazar 16-3 but remained the hero as the Vikings stopped Wasatch 29-28.

"Moroni wrestled a tough match," said Viewmont first-year coach Brandon Ripplinger. "Salazar is one of the best wrestlers in America and Moroni wrestled him tough."

And while Viewmont did what no Utah high school has been able to do in five years in beating Wasatch, the match didn't look good for the locals. With the face-off starting at the 160- pound weight class, Wasatch jumped out to a 21-0 lead winning the first four matches with three pins.

""After losing those first four matches it looked like it was going to be a long night," Ripplinger said. "Ronnie Wyman finally got us rolling with a solid win over Sean Sullivan and it started a chain reaction."

The next match saw Viewmont sophomore Seth Edwards wrestle what his coach called, "a scrappy, hard-nosed match," in beating Shane Richards by the score of 7-4.

Viewmont national champion Nate Larsen picked up a pin at 112 and the Vikings has moved to within 21-12.

After Viewmont dropped the 119 match, junior Josh Smoot, in his first match of the year after an injury, shut down Colton Bangerter, winning 2-0.

"Josh did a great job for his first time back in the lineup."

At 130, Ikero Abe was matched up against Blake Mangum, the 5A runner-up last season. Mangum is one of three state placers from other schools that transferred to Wasatch over the summer. Abe captured the hard fought match 4-3.

"Abe beating Mangum was a key match," Ripplinger said. "Mangum is always a tough competitor, but Ikeru was able to wear him down and capitalize on some great shots."

Viking sophomore Mitch Rasmussen completely dominated his opponent at 135 to pull Viewmont to within two points. And after senior Der-eck Weschi (140) topped Chris Horton 5-2, Viewmont held its first lead 22-21 with two matches remaining.

"Dereck is just a solid wrestler," Ripplinger said. "He gets out there and grinds out his wins. He did great."

Danner Kjar, the latest of the Kjar family of wrestlers, showed the genetics didn't fail him as he beat up Parker Cummings, 14-6.

"Danner was impressive," Ripplinger said. "He wasn't going to settle for just a win by decision. He went for more and got it"

Kjar's win set up Redd's heroics that led to the Vikings beating the Wasps in a dual for the first time in the rivalry between the two programs.

"Wasatch is a program that has great tradition, like Viewmont," Ripplinger said. "For many years this has been a great rivalry, but Viewmont has always come up shot against the Wasps. Tonight we expected it to be a night of tough wrestling with some tight matches. And it was. The difference was we were able to win a lot of close matches."

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