THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502170210
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 35 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAN COOLEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Any wrestling coach will tell you that teams wins championships, not individuals.
Just don't tell that to Western Branch Middle School heavyweight Marvin Urquhart.
Urquhart has literally been the difference between a championship and second place for the Bruins twice in the past two weeks. On the last day of the regular season, an Urquhart pin gave Western Branch a 46-45 win over Deep Creek in the city dual-meet championship.
Last week in the Chesapeake Middle School League tournament, with just the heavyweight bout remaining, Western Branch trailed those same Hornets by three points. Urquhart rose to the challenge again, pinning Great Bridge's Jupiter Wilson in 38 seconds to give the Bruins a two-point victory over Deep Creek for the city title.
Great Bridge, winners of the past three CMSL titles, finished third.
``I don't want to point to any one match as the key, because this win was a total team effort,'' said Western Branch coach Tom Anderson. ``They all worked hard for this and I couldn't ask for anything more.''
The close final score between Western Branch and Deep Creek was expected. What was not expected this year was the demise of Great Bridge.
After battling both the Bruins and the Hornets to the final match before losing during the regular season, the Wildcats were expected to make a strong bid for the title.
``Our (youth) and inexperience hurt us, as it did all year,'' said Great Bridge coach Doug Smith.
While the Wildcats failed to pull off the unlikely victories, Deep Creek stayed close to Western Branch early with five upset wins, all by pins.
Three of the Hornets' upsets came in the first round. Jamaal Howard (92), Ryan McCoy (115), and Paul Thomas (HWT), all unseeded, picked up wins, and third seeds Chris Irby (80) and Josh Baker (122) knocked off second-seeded Johnathon Griffin of Oscar Smith and Western Branch's Paul Neumann.
With just the consolation and championship finals left, the Bruins held a slim eight-point lead over Deep Creek. But early matches didn't go well for Western Branch.
Deep Creek's Howard, McCoy and Michael Allen (103) all won in the consolation finals before the Bruins even had the chance to win a match, giving the Hornets a three-point lead.
Neumann won by major decision, 14-4, over Great Bridge's Jason Torpey to put Western Branch back on top by a point.
The pivotal match in the consolations was at 150. Trailing Great Bridge's Troy Johnson, 4-1, in the third period, Johnny Hobbs rallied to win by pin a minute into overtime, opening up a six-point lead for the Bruins going into the finals.
The Wildcats were the victims of another big Western Branch rally in the championships. At 103, Great Bridge's Chase Wilson appeared to be well on his way to victory, leading Jason Antonucci, 8-4, with 30 seconds left. But Antonucci roared back, scoring an escape, takedown, and back points in the final seconds for a 9-8 win.
That victory, coupled with earlier wins by Justin Davis (80) and Joey Hanel (98), gave the Bruins their biggest lead over Deep Creek at 14 points (134.5 to 120.5). Although Western Branch had two fewer wrestlers than the Hornets in the remaining finals, the Bruins looked to be in control.
But it didn't take long for Deep Creek to change that. In the next six weight classes Western Branch was shut out of the points, while three Hornets (Baker, DeArmond, and Derrick Miller at 143) claimed victories. Miller's win, a pin of the Bruins' Daniel Moore, sliced Western Branch's to two points.
Counting on an Urquhart win at heavyweight as a near sure-thing, Deep Creek needed to win two of the next three weight classes to be in place for the title.
Rashad Cuffee pinned Western Branch's Lemar Carter at 175, but that was all Deep Creek would get. Mark Mahan was pinned by James Benn, Crestwood's only champion, and David Wiegand was pinned by Great Bridge's John Hunter at 157.
Other individual winners were Great Bridge's Brad Davenport (92) and Phillip Graham (115), Western Branch's Justin Davis (80), Deep Creek's Fabian Mitchell (86), and Oscar Smith's Troy Myers (74), Jason SanAgustin (108), and Doug Yates (129). by CNB