THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702220613
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 55 lines
Cox crumbled. Western Branch wiped out. And Great Bridge, well, you know the story.
The Wildcats put five wrestlers in the finals and opened a commanding 21-point lead over the Bruins in the Eastern Region wrestling tournament Friday night at Churchland.
Action continues today at 2:30 p.m. with fourth-round consolations. The finals start at 7:30 p.m.
While Great Bridge was winning 5 of 8 semifinal matches the competition was suffering surprising, if not devastating, losses.
Western Branch lost four wrestlers in the second-round consolations and then saw state champ Matt Viola and state runnerup Richard Slocumb go down in the semifinals.
Viola was working on top with the scored tied 8-8 against Tallwood's Winston Escalante when he got too high and essentially pinned himself with 15 seconds left.
``All I know is that there were only a few seconds left and I had to stop him from rolling me,'' Escalante said.
Slocumb, a master on his feet, gave up two third-period takedowns to Churchland's Nate Parker in losing 7-4. The second takedown came with only eight seconds left and sealed the victory.
``I was worried because I didn't see my parents when the match started,'' Parker said. ``Then we went out of bounds and my dad was right in front of me. This was for them as much as for me.''
Cox's woes also began in the consolations where David Walker and Steve Mings, a state place-winner at 275 last year, were eliminated. It didn't get much better after that.
The Falcons split six semifinals with the undefeated trio of Bobby Ingram, R. J. Davis and Pierre Pryor winning and Brad Pond, Jeff Kramer and previously unbeaten Mohammed Youssofi losing.
Nansemond River's Damon Hill, bidding to become his school's first Group AAA region champ, edged Youssofi 4-3. Youssofi nearly pulled it out with a double-legged takedown but Hill managed to get out of bounds with 11 seconds left.
Hill will meet Booker T. Washington's Duwyne Williams in the finals. Williams improved to 25-0 with a 8-4 victory over Western Branch's Andy Preston.
If Great Bridge doesn't clinch the championship in the wrestlebacks there is a chance Cox and Western Branch could gang up on the Wildcats.
Great Bridge hooks up with Western Branch at 119, 145 and 160 and with Cox at 135.
``It's not over,'' Great Bridge coach Steve Martin said. ``We've got to get our qualifiers through (to the state). That's the only purpose of the region tournament.'' ILLUSTRATION: Lineup
[For a copy of the lineup, see microfilm for this date.]