THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502050208
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Great Bridge spent the regular wrestling season proving they were not only the Eastern Region's best team, but also its most intense.
Saturday, they turned up the intensity one notch higher.
The Wildcats thrashed Lake Taylor, 49-12, then Cox, 56-9, to capture their fifth straight Eastern Region Duals title at Lake Taylor.
The regular season ``was just preparation,'' Great Bridge's Billy Allred said. ``Now is the time to really get things done.''
``When there's hardware on the line, that's when we really want to be at our best,'' Great Bridge coach Steve Martin said.
That the Wildcats prevailed was hardly a surprise, since they'd easily beaten the Titans twice over the past two weeks and hammered the Falcons by 39 in early January. Indeed, both teams' slim chances at victory were predicated in part on the prospects of a Great Bridge letdown.
Instead, the Wildcats (21-1) responded with some of their finest wrestling of the year. In the semifinals against Lake Taylor (15-5), they rolled out to a 27-0 lead before Kenny Hessler got the Titans on the board by upsetting Great Bridge's John Young at 140. And in the final against Cox (16-3), the Wildcats built a 32-0 advantage before the Falcons scored at 145.
``It doesn't matter to us who the opponent is,'' Great Bridge's Aaron Beatson said. ``We try to do the same thing. Just keep pounding and pounding.''
Martin was particularly pleased with Saturday's effort since it came after what he felt was a subpar effort in the Wildcats' 40-22 quarterfinal victory Friday over Tallwood.
``We wrestled horribly,'' he said. ``I chewed 'em out. Today, we wrestled very well.''
Both Great Bridge and Cox will advance to the Group AAA state duals tournament beginning Friday at Northern Region champion Centreville. The Wildcats will face Northwest Region runner-up Stonewall Jackson. The Falcons will open against Northwest Region champion Franklin County. Both matches will begin at 8 p.m.
The other state quarterfinal matches, scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday: Centreville vs. Central runner-up Hermitage and Central champion Douglas Freeman vs. Northern runner-up Robinson.
Cox reached the final by knocking off Maury, 49-12. The Falcons took 11 of 13 matches, with one of their losses coming by forfeit.
Maury (11-5) got its only victory on the mat came at 160, where returning state placewinner Orlando Morton pinned Doug Dolenti.
Otherwise, it was all Falcons. Andy Simons (112), C.J. Franzitta (130) and Will Lewis (152) picked up pins in the romp, while heavyweight Brian Wilson survived a three-point near fall to post a 20-9 victory over Steve Bruner.
Wilson, the defending state champion, also pinned Great Bridge's Shawn Curl in 3:39 seconds to improve his record to 24-0 and run his winning streak to 44.
But little else when right for the Falcons in the final. Great Bridge got pins from Aaron Anton (103), Christian Basnight (152), Allred (160), Joey Guth (171) and Josh Fannon (189). Carl Perry (125) and Beatson (135) added technical falls. Perry is now 30-0.
Making matters worse for the Falcons, they forfeited 119, and saw one of their best wrestlers, third-ranked 140-pounder Jesse Correll, drop a 10-8 decision to Young.
The Great Bridge-Lake Taylor semifinal was memorable mostly for the Fannon-Alan Hyman 189-pound bout, one of the most entertaining of the season. Fannon used composure and technique to overcome an emotionally charged Hyman in a roller-coaster 9-8 decision. The winning point came when Hyman flung an elbow and got tagged with a one-point unsportsmanlike conduct call with 10 seconds remaining. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
GARY C. KNAPP
Cox's Jesse Correll, top, works on Maury's Lewis Wallace during
their first-round Eastern Region Duals match. Correll won, 3-1.
by CNB