Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 19, 1993 TAG: 9302190022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
AN EXTRAVAGANZA BEGINS IN SALEM
Last year, Joel Ides and Brandon Semones won Group A wrestling titles at the Salem Civic Center.A year later, the two are back, but neither is a defending state champion. Both now wrestle in the 189-pound weight class, but they will not meet on the mat this weekend, and both very well could end up state wrestling champions.
If this sounds strange, that's because in a year's time a lot has changed.
The Group AA and Group A wrestling tournaments will be held together for the first time in a two-day extravaganza at the Salem Civic Center.
The first round starts today at noon. By the time the competition ends some 700 matches later, Virginia will have 26 individual champions and two state championship teams.
Among the favorites, Grundy High School is the likely winner in Group AA. The Golden Wave will be going for its seventh consecutive state crown.
In Group A, defending champion Sussex Central and Brentsville are expected to battle for the team crown again. Only 10 points separated the teams a year ago.
As for Ides and Semones, they won't be battling each other because they are in different classifications. Ides moved up to Group AA when his Group A school, Lexington, was merged with Natural Bridge and Rockbridge to form Group AA Rockbridge County High School. He was the Group A 189-pound winner last year.
Ides is faring well in Group AA, where he is unbeaten and won the Region III title last weekend.
Semones, who has won 71 matches in a row, is a two-time Group A state champion in the 171-pound class. This year he moved up to 189 and won't be defending the title he won a year ago.
"In Group AA, a lot more people come out for the team, and the competition is tougher," said Ides, who was 22-1 and a member of the All-Timesland team a year ago.
Semones said that even if Ides still was in Group A, he would have moved to 189. The past two weeks, the two practiced against each other when Rockbridge County and Glenvar worked out together.
"If he was in Group A, he'd be my toughest competition. I'd say he's one of the toughest I've gone up against," Semones said about his practice matches against Ides.
Said Ides, "Let's just say if we wrestled each other, it would be a close match."
Each says he is better than he was a year ago.
"I've learned a lot more moves," said Ides. "The older you get, the more your muscles develop. So I'm a lot stronger."
Semones says the advance in weight class hasn't hurt.
"I didn't like losing weight, and I'd have had to do that if I had gone back to 171," he said. "I'm a better wrestler and feel both a little stronger and a little quicker."
Semones' win streak might have been in peril had Sussex Central's Antonio Procise not moved from 189 to heavyweight. Last year in the 189 final, Procise was beaten 5-3 by Ides.
Grundy's challenge will come from Northside, Tabb and Broad Run. The Golden Wave and the Vikings qualified the most wrestlers for the Group AA state with 11 per team. However, one of Grundy's wrestlers is injured, and the Wave will have only 10 in the state tournament, the same as Tabb.
Grundy remains very strong and is ranked 20th nationally by USA Today. Eric Kendrick (130 pounds), Shane Bowman (140), Billy Owens (119), Tass Robertson (189) and Chad Deel (heavyweight) join sophomores David Looney (103) and Jason Cline (135) as wrestlers with a shot at placing high in the state.
Bowman (135) and Kendrick (125) won state titles a year ago, and Cline (130) finished third. Deel also is a two-time Region IV champion.
Northside, under Fred Wagner, brings its best team in years to the state. The Vikings have five regional champions and a lot of depth. They finished fifth in the Grundy Invitational.
In Group A, James River's Tony Bocanegra (103) will try to improve on his runner-up finish of a year ago.
Parry McCluer's Robbie Dickinson (171) hopes to win a second consecutive state title; he was the 160-pound champion last year.
Bocanegra and Dickinson won Region C titles last weekend. Bocanegra is unbeaten, and Dickinson has lost once.
\ NORTHWESTERN REGION: Franklin County will be out to defend its Group AAA Northwestern Region title this weekend at Heritage High School.
The Eagles easily won the Roanoke Valley District title last week.
William Fleming's unbeaten Eddie Jones (171) hopes to continue on the way to a state title.
The Northwestern Region starts this afternoon at 1.
The quarterfinals also are today, and the finals are set for 8 p.m. Saturday.