Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993 TAG: 9302140194
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
NORTHSIDE TAKES REGION III TITLE FROM BROOKVILLE
The reign of Brookville is over and Martinsville coach Spencer Chang said pretty soon Northside will be stuck with the two-word cliche of "perennial power."The Vikings broke the four-year wrestling stranglehold that Brookville had on the Region III tournament by sending six wrestlers to the finals and waltzing away with the title.
Northside, which had five champions, is the first Blue Ridge District team to win Region III since William Byrd in 1987. Chang's Martinsville team won in 1988, then Brookville dominated for four years.
Northside, favored this year, qualified 11 wrestlers for this week's Group AA tournament at the Salem Civic Center.
The Vikings' champions were Mark Mast (112 pounds), Clifton Dunford (119), Robin Keeling (140), Brian Miller (145) and Bryan VanRavestein (160).
Of the five, Miller had the most exciting match as he beat William Byrd's Jason Hogan 6-5. Last week, Hogan won the Blue Ridge title from Miller, but the Vikings wrestler already had beaten Hogan in an earlier battle.
Miller got a reversal for a 6-5 lead early in the third period. Try as he might, Hogan could neither escape nor get a reversal. At the end, he was close to a reversal that would have meant victory.
"In a matter of speaking, you could say I was hanging on," Miller said. "But I was also trying to push him over [on his back] for a pin."
Can Northside challenge for the state championship? The Vikings would have to end the reign of another perennial champion, nationally ranked Grundy. Northside finished fifth in Grundy's Christmas invitational.
"Of course you'd like to have all 13. I hope [11 wrestlers are] enough to score some points," Northside coach Fred Wagner said.
Byrd helped in the Blue Ridge District's domination of Saturday's meet by finishing second, ahead of Brookville. The Blue Ridge had 14 of the 26 finalists.
The Blue Ridge crowned eight champions. Joining the Northside winners were Lord Botetourt's Dan Sell (130), Rockbridge County's Joel Ides (189) and William Byrd's Kyle Hammon (heavyweight).
One of the more impressive finalists was Sell. He pinned Patrick County's Jamie Hamm to stretch his unbeaten streak to 28. Sell pinned four straight opponents on the way to the title and has 23 pins this season.
"I can usually use my half nelson [to pin] if people haven't seen it," said Sell, who was fourth at 125 pounds in the Group AA meet last year. "I really think I can score with it in the state."
One of the wilder matches came in the 125-pound class, where Liberty's Earl Ragland outlasted William Byrd's Patrick Henderson 15-11. Ragland had a near fall in the first 30 seconds, then had to survive a near fall by Henderson at the end.
Until that time, Ragland had been permitting Henderson to escape in order to get takedowns and possibly earn a major decision (8-14 points) or technical fall (more than 14 points). \
see microfilm for final results