here is the article. i told you all the neighborhood news would get it done. happy holidays all.............
Posted on Wed, Dec. 24, 2003
Carrera of SM North loses first match of season
By MARCUS R. FULLER
The Kansas City Star
Out of the 14 finals in Saturday's Johnson County Classic at Blue Valley just one match featured a pair of unbeatens.
Shawnee Mission North senior Ray Carrera and Blue Valley Northwest senior Garrett Jones won a combined 28-straight matches to begin the season.
But only one would become the tournament's first 275-pound champion in two years not named Adam Venegas, who before graduating from Olathe North won titles in 2001 and 2002 over Jones, now the state's top heavyweight.
The highly anticipated meeting Saturday wasn't as competitive as Carrera had hoped for with Jones pinning him in the third period.
But Carrera (13-1) still helped SM North finish fifth with 137.5 points. Aquinas won the team title with 220 points.
"Definitely Ray wanted to do better, but he's going to see him again a few more times. They both stand alone in their class in this area. Now Raymond knows what he needs to measure up to," said SM North coach Jim Sherwood.
"Hopefully as a team, we used this as a guide to see where we are and where we need to improve. It's a tuneup, because the real season starts after Christmas."
Neil Erisman of De Soto picked up where he left off last season in completely dominating his weight class. Erisman won the 152-pound title by pinning E.J. Johansen of Mill Valley in 1 minute, 52 seconds.
Last year, Erisman wrestled at 145 and finished 33-1, losing only in the championship match of the 4A state tournament.
On Saturday, Erisman ran his record to 11-0, pinning every wrestler he took the mat against. Two of his pins took only 14 and 38 seconds.
Leif Goleman of De Soto finished fourth at 171, and Trevor Leahy of De Soto finished fourth at 119.
Justin Broadbent of Mill Valley just missed a state title at 103 pounds. He lost 6-4 in overtime to Nick Shumate of Blue Valley Northwest. Brett Yates of Mill Valley beat Leahy of De Soto 3-0 in the 119-pound third-place match. And Alex Saunders of Mill Valley won the third-place match at 189 pounds by beating Tim Townsend of SM North 4-0.
SM West finished 12th with 94 points after senior David Tindle defeated his summer practice partner senior Nick Clayton of SM South for the 145-pound title by fall in 6 minutes and 32 seconds in overtime.
Tindle (15-2) said it was difficult wrestling against Clayton (11-1), who is so knowledgeable of his techniques.
"It was a really tough match," he said. "He's usually better than me in practice. This was a lot of fun."
While Clayton lost his first match of the season his SM South teammate Kenny Aubry remained undefeated (11-0) with an 11-7 win against Olathe East's Aaron Bartels to win the 135-pound title. SM South also finished 14th overall.
"I was kind of scared at first when I fell behind, but somehow I pulled it out," Aubry said. "I didn't even make it to the second day last year."
SM Northwest junior Chaz Hill lost in the championship match at 135 pounds last season, but easily won his 140-pound final Saturday by pinning Spring Hill's Derrick Hayes in 54 seconds.
Hill, the state's top ranked wrestler in his class, hopes to improve on last year's runner-up finish in 6A.
"As an underclassmen at state last year I was a little intimidated, but finishing second really helped my confidence," said Hill, who led SM Northwest to 16th place. "I do feel a lot more pressure with a state ranking this year."
SM East, which finished 17th out of 19 teams Saturday, had Ryan Sonderegger (160) and Mark Robinson (215) both finish second in their respective weight classes.
