The prep wrestling season kicks off today and Provo High School will be the epicenter of its beginning as it hosts the 12th annual Wrestling Against Cancer Duals.

The inspiration of this event was the late Ric Thompson and his wife Angie.

Thompson led Payson to its first state wrestling title in 1998 before passing away in 2010 from cancer before the inaugural event. The Wrestling Against Cancer Duals works to honor the Thompson family, give a monetary donation to an individual/family battling cancer and serve as a kickoff event for the wrestling season.

There will be six boys duals and nine girls duals as wrestling begins at 4 p.m.

One of the feature boys duals right at 4 p.m. will feature top-ranked Layton against Mountain View. The Lancers placed second in 6A state last season but have been tabbed the team to beat by USA Wrestling Utah. Mountain View is a top 5A team that should be battling to be in the top five at season’s end.

Several top girls teams from the 3A, 5A and 6A classifications will compete. Mountain View will wrestle Springville at 7 p.m. in a battle of teams that could vie for the 5A title in February. ALA, Canyon View, North Sanpete and Union are some upper echelon teams in 3A, while 6A’s Layton and Riverton sport strong teams as well.

ALA, Cedar Valley, and Provo will be competing with brand new head coaches.

ALA’s head coach for both the boys and girls programs is Spencer Reynolds while Erik Gonzalez will head the Aviator programs.

Provo, much like its boys basketball program, turned to alumni to fill its coaching staff with 1998 graduate Gerrit Greer leading the boys program with former teammates Trent Beesley and Shawn Porter as assistants. Schafer Heiner will head the girls program and get support from Greer’s wife Gwendolyn.

Match pairings, as well as the complete tournament, can be followed on Track Wrestling at wwwtrackwrestling.com.

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