THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501110127
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, SUN SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
ALL JULIAN BOUCHARD wanted to do was keep moving.
``I just told myself if I got on my back to just keep moving,'' the wrestler at Nansemond River said. ``I was really psyched up. My goal was to keep moving. I can't really remember the whole match very well.''
The part Bouchard will never forget came 3:10 into the match.
``I was behind him and on his back, but I was too high on him,'' Bouchard said. ``But he gave me the move I needed to turn him over.''
And pin him.
The pin over Ferguson's Matt Ruff last week was Bouchard's first varsity win and first varsity pin.
The sophomore, who wrestles at 119 pounds, won just two matches at the junior varsity level last season en route to a 2-9 record.
There was a sign in the Warriors' locker room last year that said ``Pain is temporary, pride is permanent.''
``I felt a lot of pain last year,'' Bouchard said.
The triumph over Ferguson, a AAA school was a big one for the Warriors.
``I thought it would be a lot closer,'' senior Whitney Craun said. ``Them being AAA, I thought they would be tough, but we whipped them.''
The Warriors won, 51-13, by taking 10 of 13 matches, including five pins.
``I didn't expect some of the decisions and pins we got in the lighter weight classes,'' Nansemond River coach Doug Dohey said.
The Warriors followed that win up with a 66-6 thumping of Churchland last Friday in their first home event.
But the expected showcase matchup of Churchland standout Tyree Murphy and Thomas Merrell never came to pass.
Murphy had dropped a weight class from 125 to 119, leaving Bouchard the unenviable task of following up his first win against one of the best wrestlers in the area.
``He threw me around like a rag doll,'' Bouchard laughed.
The match lasted all of 1:12 and resulted in the Truckers only points.
The 66 points equaled the Warriors best output ever and Nansemond River had seven pins in that match.
Damon Hill, a 189-pound freshman, added to his pin total as he chases Craun's single-season record of 12 pins in 16 dual meets last year. The previous record was 10 during a 19-dual season, which Tyrone Boone set during the 1991-92 season.
Hill's current overall record is 12-1 with five pins in duals and eight total including tournaments.
Craun himself has five pins this season and certainly has set his sights on setting a new mark himself.
``I'd love to break it,'' said Craun, a 140-pound senior. ``I wouldn't mind if Damon breaks it either. Every record is meant to be broken.
``(Damon) has three more years of this to break all the records.''
To look at Hill you would never guess that he is just 15.
``He's our brut,'' Bouchard said.
It doesn't matter what else is happening, when Hill takes the mat, everybody is interested in watching.
Hill's style just commands attention. At 189 pounds, not much is done quietly, but Hill seems to specialize in slamming his opponents to the mat.
``My goal is to pin them every time and never start wrestling,'' Hill said. ``If I don't get the first take down or can't get the pin, that's when I get mad and start slamming them down.''
That is what the crowd wants to see.
``They want blood and slams,'' Hill said.
Last season, when Nansemond River and Lakeland met at Nansemond River for the annual midday dual, the students responded to any and every slam. They didn't care if it was a Cavalier slamming one of their Warriors.
While slams are frequent when Hill takes the mat, so are wins. Hill made the jump from junior varsity expecting the transition to be difficult.
``I thought varsity was going to be so much harder,'' Hill said. ``I haven't had any trouble. I always give 110 percent.''
The Warriors had more than a week between their tri-meet last Friday and their dual at Lakeland next Wednesday. That doesn't mean any time off from practice but it does mean ``we can actually eat,'' Craun said.
Hill doesn't have the problems holding 189 that Craun and Bouchard have keeping at 140 and 119.
``I'll eat two sandwiches the night before,'' Hill said.
Craun and Bouchard won't even look at food and often won't even drink water.
These guys don't just join the team and fall into whatever weight class is closest to their weight. They figure out where there is a hole and fill it.
Bouchard has wrestled at a weight as high as 130 and dropped to 125, but he knew that Merrell would be wrestling in that class, so he dropped six more pounds.
``The coach usually decides,'' Craun said. ``But I have never heard him tell anyone to gain or lose weight to switch to a different class.''
Craun said there have been times that he has worried so much about his weight that he wouldn't brush his teeth for fear that the water would tip him over.
``I have gone through school with cotton mouth and without brushing my teeth,'' Craun said. ``The biggest problem is at the beginning of the season, getting used to it. You walk around school and you don't want to talk to anybody or anything until you have weighed out and you can get food.''
Hill always makes sure he has a plate of food right next to the scale. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Nansemond River's Damon Hill, at 171 pounds, waits for the referee
to signal his pin of Churchland opponent James Worrell during
Friday's meet.
by CNB