Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993 TAG: 9302210303
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VIKINGS 2ND TO GRUNDY IN GROUP AA
How long will Grundy's winning streak go on in Group AA state wrestling?"Grundy is an outstanding program. There are a lot of outstanding programs and theirs is above those," Northside coach Fred Wagner said.
Grundy claimed its seventh consecutive Group AA team title Saturday at the Salem Civic Center behind 140-pounder Shane Bowman, who won his fourth consecutive individual crown.
The Golden Wave scored 169 1/2 points to finish well ahead of Northside with 104. The Vikings clinched second when Brian VanRavestein scored a comeback 7-5 decision over York's Ed Tourinsky for the 160-pound title. The Vikings would have finished a half-point behind Broad Run without that victory.
"I'm happy. We lost a lot of close matches and that's a sign the team wants to win," Wagner said.
Grundy had two other champions - Chris Shortridge (130) and Jason Cline (135) - but it was the 140-pound Bowman who captured the attention. In 36 career tournament matches, he has scored 35 pins. The one decision was by 10-2.
Saturday, Bowman took 53 seconds to pin Poquoson's Forrest Holloway. That started an emotional scene among the Grundy followers for their champion, who was in tears.
"It feels great. I told the team I'd pin him in the first period. I watched him wrestle a guy in the semifinals I had pinned last year," Bowman said.
"His strength is when he gets on the top position," Grundy coach Kevin Dresser said. "The best thing is he has a lot of patience and to be a good pinner, you have to have a lot of patience."
The Golden Wave coach still was steaming about a 2-0 loss David Looney suffered to Chad Juhl of Poquoson in the 103-pound class.
"I thought we did a great job [as a team], but we got robbed in the 103," Dresser said. "He [Looney] had a cradle locked up, but the official called it off. He didn't get a reversal [for two points] or anything."
Aside from Grundy, two Timesland wrestlers claimed state titles. Besides VanRavestein, Byrd's Kyle Hammon pinned Rustburg's Remel Pugh in 1:28 for the heavyweight title. It was a rematch of last week's Region III title match, which Hammon won 4-2.
Northside had several chances to clinch second place before VanRavestein did it. The Vikings needed a win in the consolation matches but didn't get it. Then Park View-Sterling's Mark Hernandez decisioned the Vikings' Clifton Dunford 10-3.
Broad Run trailed 100-95 1/2 with one wrestler, Saun St. Clair, left in the 152-pound class. St. Clair had to get a major decision or more to keep the Vikings from clinching and did, beating Martinsville's Matt Saddler 13-0 to put Northside down a half-point.
Things started slowly for VanRavestein, who trailed Tourinsky 4-0 after two periods. VanRavestein got a takedown and near fall to tie the match at 4 in the final period with a minute left.
Then VanRavestein intentionally let Tourinsky escape, putting the York wrestler in front 5-4 with a minute left. "I didn't want a tie; I wanted to go for it," VanRavestein said.
The Vikings got a break when Tourinsky was penalized a point for stalling. That tied the score at 5 and, with six seconds left, VanRavestein got a takedown for the victory.
Hammon's victory was impressive.
"I had more adrenaline flowing than last week," said the Byrd wrestler. "I just got a simple underhook and stepped through. But I never thought I could pin him."
Byrd coach Barry Trent was afraid it would be another close one for Hammon. "But Kyle's self-motivated," he said. "He's been dreaming about this for a long time. He worked hard to get here."
In one of the tournament's better matches, Byrd's Patrick Henderson just missed an upset in the 125-pound class when he lost to Shortridge 6-5. \
see microfilm for complete results.