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Wednesday, February 14
Fate has Been Pinning Wrestlers - 2.10.05
Sudbury Town Crier
It was a tough week for the Lincoln-Sudbury Warrior grapplers. When expectations are high, any kind of loss casts a pall over things. L-S's hope of repeating as dual meet champions of the Dual County League went by the way when Concord-Carlisle squeaked by with a three-point victory months ago.
Then the injury vulture began circling above the Warrior wrestling room. Two senior starters, Koby Elias and Nick Rahall, went down. Will Anderson, a 215-275 pounder was forced out with back problems. But Elias' injury, in particular, because of the lack of depth and experience in those upper weights, 171,189, 215 and 275, caused insurmountable problems for coach Harry Coffin. He no longer had the ability to keep wrestlers in their weights and had to bump and jump guys around.
With the first ever DCL championships Saturday, Coffin went to war with only an infantry, his air force down with clipped wings.
It all started Tuesday a week ago. Going into Weston's Pit (you only know how fitting the name is if you've been there) top guns Dave Ciampa, the Warriors' sterling 112 pounder, hurt in an auto accident, Rahall, with a knee injury, and Elias all missing, the Wildcats hung the worst loss on L-S in a dual meet in quite a long time.
The only shining parts of the chassis were "Dr. Tilt", Tim Leggett, Nick Antico and Dan Braun at 125, 130 and 152, respectively. "Dr. Tilt" happens to be on a dominant roll at the moment, a very good sign he is ready for the sectional meet on Friday and Saturday. The final score was 58-12. The loss dropped L-S's final league dual meet record for 2004-05 to 6-2-1.
As mentioned, history was made with the first DCL Championships held at the other Warriordome in Wayland Saturday last. It was a meet filled with the unexpected as well as disappointment, but, in the last throes of the meet, with some strong wrestling, L-S, hornswaggled in fifth place going into the final round, got some measure of satisfaction and revenge in the tourney and on the Patriots, as the Warriors jumped ahead of C-C to take fourth place overall. Wayland came in first, the surprise of the meet, Newton South, second, Weston third and our Warriors. The final results were:
1. Wayland 213
2. Newton South 188.5
3. Weston 173
4. L-S 161.5
5. Concord-Carlisle 160.5
6. Hopkinton 103
7. Holliston 76
8. Acton-Boxboro 67
9. Boston Latin 55
10.Westford 22.5
As Gary Chase, of Wayland, mentioned, it was a backside meet. His squad could not have won had it not been for his wrestlers winning in the consolation bracket. Large tourneys like the DCL's are won by the whole team, not just the grapplers wrestling for the championships.
Individually, Leggett masterly exacted the only championship for L-S at 125. Leggett helped move Newton South out of first as he beat Hubert Hom of the Lions for the title, boosting his overall record to an epic 28-6. The other championship qualifiers were Eliot Gibbs at 130 and John Mackinnon at 140. Gibbs got beaten by Max Klinoff of C-C and Mackinnon by Greg Bergman of Wayland in a close match, 6-2, to finish in the runnerup positions.
Finishing third for the Warriors were Ciampa at 112, Sammy Bores, at 119, who beat a host Warrior, Max Mitnick, moving his record to an astounding 25-7, Antico, at 135, who also bested a Waylander, and Braun, who took apart another Waylander, Mrs. Ogletree's son, Andrew, at 152, moving his record to 24-6.
Finishing fourth was Deron Zambruno at 171. Finishing fifth were Jeff Stein at 103 and Lee Gavin at 145.
On Friday and Saturday the Warriors travel to Newton South for the Central Sectionals.
The stiffest competition will come from Natick, Franklin, Catholic Memorial, and with the upstart Newton South Lions, based on their showing at the DCL's.
The sections are the penultimate goal of the season as the top six placers in the sections qualify for the state meet. Anything can happen at the states. Grappling is set to begin around three down in ol' Newtonia.
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