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Long, Mangrum, Civan, Winn and Fortune win freestyle titles to follow up Greco crowns
Ashmore wins Texas' first Cadet title
By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com
Fargo, N.D. – It was anything but a normal night on the raised mat in the Fargodome on the campus of North Dakota State University at the 2005 Cadet Greco-Roman National Championships.
Cadet Freestyle |
Sometimes champions can be so completely dominating and others they can get on by the proverbial skin of their teeth.
Champions in the 2005 Cadet Freestyle National Championships did just that in Friday night’s finals at the Fargodome on the campus of North Dakota State University.
Iowa’s Andrew Long, Washington’s Mike Mangrum, Maryland’s Eren Civan, Missouri’s Deron Winn and Tyrell Forture won freestyle titles to go along with their Greco championships they won earlier in the week.
Furious scrambles and great balance highlighted the 140-pound final between Texas’ Luke Ashmore and New Jersey’s Scott Winston.
Ashmore, from Dallas’ Bishop Lynch High School, became the Lone Star State’s first Cadet National champion with a flurry-filled 3-1 victory, a match where the final score didn’t reflect the action.
“I knew he a lot was stronger than me,” Ashmore said. “I had to wrestle hard.”
“Coach (Kenny) Monday really worked us hard the last three weeks and it really paid off,” Ashmore said.
The payoff for Ashmore was also the Outstanding Wrestler Award.
The payoff wasn’t as great for 135-pounder Johnny Koepp, who could have stolen Ashmore’s glory.
Koepp, Texas’ other finalist, fell to New Jersey’s Mario Mason 7-0. Mason was one of two Blair Academy wrestlers to win titles on the evening.
Kellen Russell won the 125-pound final, beating Craig Wilson of Farmington, Mo., 6-0.
For Mason, it was a bit of sweet revenege.
“The kid (Koepp) beat me last year,” Mason said. “Last year I had to come back, I was down 6-0 and then came back and was up 7-6 before I made a mistake and got thrown with 14 seconds left.”
Mason used that knowledge to stay away from Koepp’s dangerous throws from the standing position.
“I wanted to use my motion to set things up,” Mason said.
The freestyle tournament started up quick, much like the Greco finals, with Iowa’s Long scored a quick fall at 84 pounds over Pennsylvania’s Richy Reinoehl at 51 seconds.
Long lost his opening match of the tournament, but kept at it.
“I watched the kid that beat me lose and after that, I knew I had to get focused,” Long said.
“It was all about the warm-up,” Long said. “Before the first match, I’d just woken up from a nap and I wasn’t ready.”
“I was ready for this (the final),” he said.
Ohio’s David Taylor kept the pace high with a 10-0 technical fall over Illinois’ B.J. Futrell.
Connecticut’s Anthony Valles captured the championship at 98 pounds with a 5-0 victory over Ben Sergent. It was the second straight Cadet championship for the South Windsor, Conn., native.
Tyler Clark of Illinois took home the title at 105 with a 5-1 win over Michigan’s Mark Weber.
Colorado’s Tyler Graff rebounded from last season’s runner-up finish with a three point throw from the clinch to beat Iowa’s Nate Moore 5-1 in overtime.
Mangrum, who wowed the crowd with backflips after his Greco champions, repeated the feat after his 7-3 victory over Utah’s Jason Chamberlain at 119. The now four-time All-American won’t take time off – he’ll start lifting immediately.
“I’m going to get big for 125 next year,” Mangrum said. “All those 125 pounders out there better watch out.”
After Russell’s victory at 125, two of the most electrifying wrestlers of the tournament faced off at 130 – Massachusetts’ Sean Bilodeau and Delaware’s Alex Meade.
Meade and Bilodeau looked like technical reflections, each countering each others movements with balance and anticipation.
Meade prevailed 5-3 over an opponent he knew well.
“We’re pretty good friends,” Meade said. “We’ve worked out a lot together.”
After Mason and Ashmore’s victories, Civan won his second title of the week and got to hoist the famed Maryland rubber chicken above his head after his three-point throw from the clinch beat Oregon’s Josh Stalcup.
After Civan lost the point in the clinch at the end of the first period and gave up a point on a Stalcup takedown, the pair locked up again, this time, it was Civan launching Stalcup to his back for the victory.
“After the first clinch, I knew I could do that,” Civan proudly told his coaches after the match.
“My goals were to come out here and be a double champion and I did it,” Civan said.
Pat Wright of Michigan captured his first national-level tournament in a wild 11-9 victory over Greco runner-up Chris Hacker of Oklahoma at 152.
Each scored on a plethora of par terre offense, but it was Wright who came away on top.
A scare came during the finals at 160 between Maryland’s Luke Rebertus and Idaho’s Kirk Smith.
After Rebertus jumped out to a 6-0 lead with a takedown and a trapped-arm gut, Smith powered into Rebertus, lifting him from the mat, but the wrestlers’ momentum drove them off the raised platform, sending both wrestlers onto the turf of the Fargodome football field that runs underneath the mats.
After a short injury timeout, Smith turned his offense up, turning Rebertus with leg laces, but Rebertus would also hold the chicken proudly after a 7-5 victory.
“I landed on my shoulder, but it didn’t take anything out of me,” Rebertus said.
“I knew he was teching people all tournament with his laces to his guts,” he continued. “I couldn’t stop the lace, but I fought off the guts.”
Parkersburg High School’s Andy Thomas won the crown at 171 pounds for Team West Virginia with another entertaining bout over Washington’s Andrew Buck 8-3.
The second pair of wrestlers to tumble from the raised mat were Winn and Illinois’ Jerome Ward.
Winn landed hard on his elbow and after getting the 4-2 victory, quickly sprinted off to the trainers table. Even Winn’s post-match handshake with Illinois coach Carl Perry brought the double champion a wince.
A scary thought for wrestlers next year at 215 pounds is that double-champ Fortune is only a first-year Cadet.
Fortune battled Illinois’ returning All-American D.J. Bruce to an 11-5 victory.
“It feels good to win both,” a reserved Fortune said after the match.
A pair of Ohio heavies wrestled in the final at 275, with Ben Kuhar earning the fall off a counter, planting Cameron Wade for the pin at 3:35.
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