THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996              TAG: 9602080173
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST           PAGE: 15   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Sports 
SOURCE: BY JEFF ZEIGLER 
        CORRESPONDENT 
DATELINE: BARCO                              LENGTH: Short :   50 lines

CURRITUCK STAR HAS AMASSED MANY WINS ALONG THE WAY RYAN SERRANO HAS CHALKED UP A RECORD OF 133-29 SO FAR, AND HE'S NOT FINISHED YET.

It takes a lot of wins to be the top wrestler in the history of your school, and Ryan Serrano has got them.

Serrano, who has wrestled four years at Currituck County High School, has chalked up a record of 133-29 so far. That's a winning percentage of .821 and an average of 33 wins per season. And he still has this year's state tournament to add to his totals.

Serrano is 28-4 wrestling at 125 pounds this season. The Knights went 4-0 in the Northeastern Conference to capture the regular season title.

Serrano attributes his success this season to hard work and some special coaching.

``Tom Keeley from the Virginia area - he's more of my coach because I'm always working with him,'' Serrano said. ``Some Currituck graduates also help me a lot. Mike Beasley and Clint Belangia come and help me drill with my moves and push me really hard.''

Currituck has beaten arch-rival Manteo three times this year, and one of Serrano's more memorable wins was over Ben Mercer. Serrano moved up to wrestle at 130 and defeated Manteo's Mercer, who was previously unbeaten.

Serrano has moved up in weight class over the years. He began at 112 and wrestled at 119 his sophomore and junior years. He has had no problem adjusting to 125.

``When I wrestled at 119, I sometimes bumped up, so it's been about the same this year as wrestling at 119,'' he said. ``I've seen pretty much the same people.''

Serrano placed seventh in the state last year in his weight class. He ended up bumping heads with the wrestler who won the tournament, as well as the third place finisher. He lost to the third place man by one point.

Serrano hopes that this year's competition has prepared him well for the state's.

``Three of my four losses have been to wrestlers from Virginia schools and to a wrestler from Jacksonville, which is a 3A school,'' he said.

And what about his all-time win record at Currituck?

``It feels pretty good, but somebody will beat it, I'm sure.'' by CNB