THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 3, 1995 TAG: 9503030522
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Great Bridge wrestling coach Steve Martin won't mind if his Wildcats get a little selfish this weekend.
Team titles are nice - and Great Bridge certainly has a bunch of those - but the Wildcats are looking for the individual glory that goes along with it when the Group AAA state championships come to South Hampton Roads for the second time.
This year's tournament will be at Oscar Smith High. Norfolk State hosted in 1986.
First-round matches begin today at 11 a.m., with first-round consolations set for about 2 p.m., quarterfinals at 7 p.m. and second-round consolation matches at 9 p.m.
Saturday's action begins at noon with the semifinals. The finals are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
With nine state qualifiers, all of whom have legitimate chances to place, Great Bridge seems like a lock to win its eighth state team title in the past nine years. But the Wildcats won the team title last year without any individual champions, and none left Richmond's Arthur Ashe Center satisfied.
``We were humbled by that,'' Martin said.
Still, Great Bridge won't be going into the state tournament on a roll. The Wildcats crowned only two champions at last week's Eastern Region tournament, an outcome that had Martin scrambling to put a positive spin on what by Great Bridge standards was a disappointing performance.
``Sometimes losses are good,'' the coach said. ``Better now than at the state tournament.''
Momentum won't be a problem for Great Bridge's Carl Perry. The junior 125-pounder has ripped through 39 opponents without a loss and enters as one of the more prohibitive favorites in the tournament.
Billy Allred, fifth at 160 a year ago and a two-time regional champ, appears to be the Wildcats' next best bet for a state title, although he'll be tested from the get-go. First-round opponent Kris Bishop of Osborne Park placed fourth in the state at 140 last season. Also lurking in Allred's half of the draw is E.C. Glass' Breon Crennel, who finished two spots ahead of Allred in last year's state tourney.
Cox's Brian Wilson and Salem's Chip Reyes, the Eastern Region's two defending state champions, enter the tournament after distinctly different performances in last week's region finals. Reyes (22-1), the 103-pound champ a year ago, will be looking to regroup after a 9-3 loss to Gloucester's Joey Legg.
Heavyweight Wilson (34-0) dispatched Kempsville's Kevin Eaton by fall in his final and is currently riding a 53-match winning streak.
For sheer dominance, however, no one comes into the tournament on a bigger high than Western Branch's Byron Tucker, a two-time state placewinner who has gone 34-0 and has yet to be taken down.
Lee Butler (103) and Sean Sanderlin (145), Western Branch's other region champions, should also find themselves in title hunts.
Other favorites in their respective fields include Tallwood's Mike Mercado (112), Deep Creek's Ryan Baker (171) and Tallwood's Jonathan Vann (189), all region champs.
Mercado, a state runner-up at 103 last year, has been unstoppable since a late-December loss to Great Bridge freshman Bruce Fowler.
Baker, third in the state at 171 in 1994, insists he won't lose. And Vann, fourth at 189 last season, has answered most of the questions about his fitness by remaining unbeaten. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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