The 25th edition of the annual Beast of the East tournament was attended by all the DODEA Japan and KPASS league schools, as well as two teams from Korea and a Japanese military school. The ASIJ squad surpassed last year's performance, placing 5th out of 13 teams, despite missing its standard varsity wrestlers at three of the 13 weight classes, leaving two of them uncontested in addition to the heavyweight class that has gone vacant for several years. The Stars and Stripes must have had their B-team working the tournament as their reporting contained several uncharacteristic errors. The actual team results were as follows: Shonan-63, St. Mary's-59, Kubasaki-42, Kinnick-39, ASIJ-33, Edgren-22, MC Perry-18, Yokota-14, Humphreys-12, CAJ-10, Kadena-5, Zama-5, Seoul American-3. Kyle kicked things off at 101 for the Mustangs against Kinnick, and then Kadena, putting one of his opponents on his back, before succumbing by tech fall and fall, respectively. This bracket featured the first ever female Beast champion, from Shonan (everyone in this weight class is glad they won't see her again this season!), followed by Kyle's two opponents at 2nd and 3rd. Had the random seed and byes favored Kyle instead of pitting him against the toughest ones first, he would almost certainly have placed 4th. At the Beast. As a freshman. In his first year of wrestling. The next freshman, Katsumi at 108, exposed the back of his first opponent from Shonan to the mat on two separate occasions, but he couldn't quite keep him there long enough for a pin. He eventually came out on the short end of a 10-4 decision. In his next match, his foe from Matthew C. Perry brought the black ship to the Katsumi Shogunate as he was subjugated by fall in the continuance of a tech fall. Since neither of them are in the Kanto Plain conference, he's got a real shot at a winners podium finish at the league in a couple weeks. Take, wrestling at 115, started his match against Kubasaki with a huge 4-point takedown and didn't stop the takedown party until the ref raised his hand for a tech fall victory. He also blocked Kinnick from getting any points at this weight class by pinning his next guy from there (in a continuance of a tech fall). In the finals, Shonan showed their strength with a pin. In the "true 2nd" format of the tournament, the 3rd place winner from SMIS, who had only lost to Shonan, was afforded the opportunity to wrestle back for 2nd. Take went into the second period up 4-0 but fell by pin with less than a minute left in the match. These two will surely keep seeing each other in the finals. Oh, and Take's a freshman, too. Talk about bright future for the Mustangs. It looked like the random seeding had placed the top two wrestlers at 122 against each other in the first round as Ira went against a sturdy kid from Kubasaki. He got the first takedown but, as the match wore on, you could see his Ultraman light blinking; he couldn't pull out a special beam to save the day and got pinned. Going against league rivals from Zama, CAJ, and Yokota, Ira went tech, pin (21 seconds), and tech on his way to the 3rd place match against St. Mary's, a rematch of his upset loss in the league dual meet. Even after the refs stopped the match due to whimpering while Ira had him in a tight pin position (just incredible, probably the most egregious reffing error I've ever witnessed...in wrestling), Ira simply took him down and pinned him again to win his first top-3 finish at the Beast. After wrestling at 135 his last three matches, Ricky went back down to 129 to fill the hole opened by illness there. It clearly suited him because, after a first round bye, he put away his quarterfinal opponent from MC Perry, staking out a 4-2 lead and never looking back for a final 8-2 decision. In the semifinals it was strong guy vs. strong guy, and he took down the eventual champion from St. Mary's before he gave way to a tech fall, getting something tweaked while avoiding a pin. Without that, he had a real shot getting to the 3rd place match. Oh, he's also a first year wrestler. Have I mentioned anything about the future and brightness yet? Egan got a first round bye at 141 and quickly moved on to the semifinals with a made-it-look-easy pin over CAJ to show the newbies how it's done. He wasn't able to get anything going in his first time against a St. Mary's stalwart, and lost by tech fall to the eventual champion. In his next match, he reopened his wrestling clinic with magnificent 5-point move that saw his Kubasaki foe's feet fly in a rainbow arc over his head enroute to a tech fall win. Somewhere along the way he got something dinged up, so he injury-forfeited 3rd place to MC Perry, who was very happy to avoid get schooled by Egan, to match his 4th place finish at last year's Beast. The seeding put Rin in a wrestle-in match at 148 against MC Perry where he slashed the Samurai in a 10-0 match that was not as close as the score would seem to indicate. He reproduced that result in the next round in a blink-and-you-missed-it match against CAJ. In his semifinal versus Kubasaki, it was immediately evident that his opponent was for real as he scored the first offensive takedown Rin has allowed all year...and then repeated that feat. Rising to the challenge, Rin racked up throws, takedowns, and exposures to triumph via tech over the toughest kid he's faced yet. The final was almost anticlimactic as he tech'ed his opponent from Humphreys, scoring so fast it was 12-0 before the refs could stop it. The first place finish represents a successful defense of last year's Beast championship. Tei answered the call at 158 to fill in from the JV ranks at the biggest tournament of the season to date. The first year wrestler's first match against MC Perry, after a fortunate first round bye, ended the way you'd expect against an experienced wrestler: tech fall loss for the good guys. Going against Kadena in the consolation bracket, he started off strong with a 4-point Tei-kdown, and finished strong to notch his first varsity victory via tech fall. His next opponent was from Kubasaki. After having wrestled two long, strong matches and streaking out to a 8-2 lead over the foe (who was dispatched quickly in his only other match), you could see that so much wrestling with the big boys was emptying the tank quickly. The running score tells the story: 8-6, 9-8, 11-12, 11-14, 11-16, pin. I'm convinced that if these two had the opposite initial seeding, this match would have had the opposite result and ASIJ would have gotten 4th instead. The 168 bracket was a little smaller than the lighter ones, but it was filled with quality wrestlers. Zenon faced Edgren in the first round and promptly got thrown for 4 points. He also gave up his first back exposure points in his toughest match of the season so far. The takedown deluge that followed washed away any doubt about the outcome as Zenon "only" beat him by 9. In the semifinal against a familiar Kinnick foe, Zenon got a familiar outcome, pinning him after his fourth takedown. The finals also provided a matchup we could see as many as four more times at this weight this season: ASIJ vs St. Mary's. How did it end? Let's just say that you know you're dominating the other wrestler when they're overjoyed that they didn't lose by tech or pin this time. The championship for ASIJ ensures Zenon's picture will be added to the other Mustang greats that grace the wrestling room. Masa's first match pitted him against a SMIS wrestler who hadn't lost since the final of last year's Far East. He made a go of it, but those long legs got tangled in a takedown, enabling the foe to roll him for a quick tech fall. Advancing through the consolation bracket, Masa executed some nice front rolls, a couple takedowns and exposed the back of the MC Perry wrestler to win by tech fall and put him out of the bracket. Being tall, good looking, strong, smart, nice, and somewhat funny, you may look at Masa and wonder if there's anything he can't do. Well, he can't hold a lead against tough opposition. Just like at the CAJ Invitational, he was up against Edgren today before getting pinned by the eventual 3rd place winner. He is clearly well positioned for a podium finish at the conference tournament in a couple weeks. Having gone through the facts and results, let's now travel together for a moment to the land of what-ifs and consider the following: if the three standard varsity wrestlers didn't get the flu, etc., if Kyle or Tei had drawn a slightly different placement in their brackets, if Ricky or Egan hadn't gotten pushed/pulled the wrong way and instead been able to finish out their brackets, or, in a less luck-driven category, if Take or Masa's last matches had ended when they had the lead - if any two of those nine what-ifs had gone our way, we would have beaten Kubasaki and Kinnick and been knocking on St. Mary's door for 2nd. We don't have a big margin of error, but if we get things to fall our way instead of how they fell today...let's just say we're on the cusp, about to break through the barrier between "good" and "great."
The Mustangs now proceed to the Zama Invitational on February 2 at Zama American Middle-High School for a series of dual meets. ASIJ will face MC Perry (Iwakuni), Edgren (Misawa), and CAJ in Pool B, with the winning team facing off against the winner of Pool A. The following week will see the last league dual meets of the season. St. Mary's (5-0) has wrapped up first, so Tuesday's winner between Kinnick (3-1) and ASIJ (2-1) will take second in the conference regular season.
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ASIJ competed in the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) Invitational held Saturday, January 19. Varsity and JV wrestlers from all six KPASS conference schools competed. Eight Mustangs placed in the top 3 in their weight class, and ASIJ finished third out of the six teams in front of a big crowd of ASIJ parents and supporters.
The eight placewinners was double the number ASIJ posted at the same tournament a year ago. The Mustangs' 46 team points were good for a close third behind 2nd place Kinnick and left no doubt about the cream of the crop in the conference; it would have taken the combined scores of the fourth through sixth place teams - Yokota, Zama, and host CAJ - to slightly surpass ASIJ's point haul for the day. At 101 Kyle was in a round-robin style bracket where every wrestler goes against each other to determine the place order. He placed 3rd by defeating his opponent from Yokota and then having the favor returned by St. Mary's and Kinnick. During the tournament the first year wrestler picked up his first technical fall and first finish on the winners podium, portending plenty of potential for the Mustangs. After facing off against the #1 and #2 wrestlers from Yokota and CAJ at 108, possibly the top two in the entire Far East, Katsumi bowed out of the tournament to finish fourth due to injury. Had the order of matches been different, it's very possible we would have seen him finish with a 3rd place medal. Continuing the fast start to his freshman year, Take took third at 115 by first pinning CAJ and then withdrawing to nurse an injury, preventing a shot at any higher place. His current stats place him in the team's top five in both record and number of pins. At 122 Ira placed third, starting the day with a tech fall over Yokota to move into the winners bracket. That was followed by giving up a pin against SMIS, despite looking pretty good for several minutes. With his multiple takedowns today, Ira moves into sole possession of 3rd place on the team top fives. Mich, an exemplar in this fabulous freshman class, fell to the eventual champion from Kinnick in his first match by pin. Going for third, he was up against a lanky opponent from SMIS. He took advantage of the long legs available to him for several takedowns, but the downside was that the long arms could get ankle picks and the like. After staking out a hardfought 10-8 lead, he allowed a 4-point throw to end the Mustangs' hope of another place winner at 129. His two league wins (record) and his takedowns from today put him in the current top five on the team in both categories. In his first match at 135, a weight class with a completely full bracket, Ricky wrestled strong and got a takedown against St. Mary's, but the exposure points he gave up when he got taken down led to a tech fall loss. In the consolation bracket, he faced the same Zama opponent from the league dual meet on Thursday, starting by trading takedowns before allowing enough points to lose by technical fall. Wrestling in another full weight bracket at 141, Egan placed second after mowing down his first, second, and third opponents to reach the finals. He pinned a JV wrestler from Kinnick in the first round, and did the same in the quarterfinals to his Zama challenger, albeit the 1:04 it took was about twice the time as the dual meet Thursday. To change things up a bit, he won by tech fall in the semifinals against SMIS. In the finals, Egan got a takedown to pull within 5-2 but couldn't get anything else, ending in a 6-2 decision and ASIJ's highest finish to that point. Kieran continued to control his challengers at 148, coming out of the first round by racking up six takedowns on the way to a near tech fall 12-4 decision over Kinnick. He pinned his semifinal foe from CAJ in under a minute to go 2-0 against him on the season and advance to the finals. Going for the gold against St. Mary's, Kieran wrestled to a near-draw at 4-2 before giving up seven straight to lose 11-2, putting him in as the second in a row to place 2nd for the tournament. Taking a first round bye at 158, one above his normal weight, Rin started the quarterfinal round against Kinnick, making quick work out of it in a 10-0 tech fall victory. He repeated that score in the next round against St. Mary's, piling on takedowns and exposures to advance to the finals. There he met a St. Mary's tough guy, getting thrown for an early scare before finishing in dominating fashion to end up with a tech fall and become the first ASIJ champion of the day. At 168, Zenon had a round robin bracket, going against four opponents. He started by pinning the eventual 3rd place finisher from Kinnick. The next round was essentially the championship match against SMIS; he started out with a mini scare, giving up his first points of the entire season. Leading 4-3, he then scored 10 straight points and secured the tech fall victory. Extending his win streak to 20, Zenon switched up the order against the two JV entries from Kinnick and St. Mary's, winning by tech fall and pin, respectively, to secure a second straight 1st place finish for ASIJ. Masa started out his first match against Kinnick at 180 by staking out an 8-0 lead, nearly getting the pin, only to succumb to a throw and get pinned himself with about 30 seconds left to wrestle. In the consolation bracket, he wrestled the last match before the tournament awards ceremony for 5th place, getting the pin in an amazing 22 seconds against St. Mary's. Also in a round robin style bracket at 215, the lean Dani started out against the ample returning Far East champion from Kinnick, who only lost to a Mustang last year. He got taken down but didn't give up exposure points and stood his ground admirably until getting caught in a throw for a pin with about 15 seconds to go in the first period. In his match for 2nd, Dani got thrown for 4 before a nice 4-point takedown to even the score; his SMIS opponent eventually got the pin, however, putting Dani at 3rd for the final winners podium representative from ASIJ. Isak, Leila, Luke, Josh, and Shawn wrestled from the JV team today. Marin, Keibun, and Liam, not wrestling for various reasons, showed their support for their teammates as well and made themselves useful by filming and performing other various tasks. Going against the top varsity wrestlers in their weight classes did not deter them from giving their all and producing some highlights along the way. Isak got a massive 4-point takedown on, and some major respect from, Jasjot from St. Mary's. Leila and Shawn continue to set the pace for the JV wrestlers in wins, pins, and takedowns. Josh was ahead 14-5 in his first match against Yokota before getting taken down and pinned, sending him to the 5th place match in an all-ASIJ affair against Luke. Luke started out aggressive going up 7-0, highlighted by a huge throw. Josh kicked it in gear, getting a reversal and pin off a West Point to ensure order in the senior-freshman hierarchy. The CAJ Invitational provided a kind of foreshadowing of what we might expect at the Kanto Finals in three weeks. The wrestlers now prepare for the Beast of the East on January 26 at Kinnick on the Yokosuka Naval Base. The results of the Beast have typically tracked closely with the results of the end-of-season Far East tournament. Thursday night the Mustangs travelled to Zama for a conference dual meet against the Trojans, a vastly improved team laying it all on the line, desperate for a win in their last league dual meet. The calm and collected wrestling of ASIJ truncated the Trojans 55-9.
Kyle and Katsumi kicked off the meet by picking up wins by forfeit at 101 and 108 for a quick 10-0 lead. At 115 Take toyed with Angel A., going up 8-0 before pinning him for a 15-0 ASIJ advantage. Ira broke out his signature quick-pin wrestling at 122, putting Kaito’s shoulders to the mat at 0:44, and putting ASIJ up 20-0. Not to be outdone by his fellow freshmen, Michiru also contributed max points at 129 by getting a pin called on Angel F. just as the buzzer ended the match (6:00 will certainly be hard to beat for “slowest pin” this year). Ricky, going at 135 on varsity for the first time, wrestled strong for the Mustangs, but inexperience prevented him from taking advantage of what the confusingly named Riki from Zama was giving him, falling 14-4 in the second period. Building on the 25-4 lead at 141, Egan went against the Trojan’s great hope Eligh, and pinned him in a remarkable 36 seconds. At 148 Zama’s Caden didn’t let his success desert deter him from giving it everything he had against the Mighty Rin, but the capability chasm between them that would dwarf the Grand Canyon produced highlight reel moments, after some Zama flail and whirl, as Rin ended his 405-day pin drought in a kind, merciful, dominating fashion. Kieran looked back in force-to-be-reckoned-with form, getting a nice, tight West Point that Haruki had no chance of escaping; his pin at 158 pushed the Mustang lead to 40-4. After lending his talents to Zama his last time out, Zenon extended his win streak the easy way as the 16-in-a-row winner took a forfeit for the good guys at 168. Masa had to dig down deep before coming up with a 2nd period pin against Zama’s much improved judo star, Cane. Dani remained undefeated on the season taking a forfeit at 215. Zama’s heavyweight went unopposed to close out the scoring at 55-9, the most the Mustangs have scored in a dual meet in a long, long time. Between Zama’s doubleheader meets, their opponents - Kinnick & ASIJ - wrestled several exhibition matches, with Mustangs winning 3 of 5. Wrestling up a weight at 108, Kyle got his first pin of the year against Anthony, resulting in a smile you could see from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo. Katsumi came out tentative against Alexi, and it cost him as he fell by fall (pin). At 141 Josh got a takedown against the ultra-strong Ethan before succumbing to a pin. Wrestling up a weight again, Shawn spent a full 2 minutes evaluating Keith, found a weakness, and exploited it, putting him on his back for a pin. Dani wrestled like a cranky bear woken up from a deep sleep, aggressively taking down and pinning the heavier Aurion in a super speedy 23 seconds. The commanding win against Zama allowed ASIJ to stay one game back of St. Mary’s in the regular season conference race, and a half game behind Kinnick, as both league rivals won their respective dual meets this week. There’s not much time for celebrating, though, as the CAJ invitational will be held Saturday, January 19. Because it’s an open tournament (JV will wrestle, too), we’re hoping for multiple ASIJ vs ASIJ finals - varsity wrestling like they should and JV Mustangs stretching to their max potential. If you thought that the great Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre playing for the Minnesota Vikings was funny, then you should've seen Zenon wrestling for the Zama Trojans today. A few ASIJ wrestlers participated in the dual meet tournament at Yokota attended by DoD schools MC Perry (Iwakuni), Kinnick (Yokosuka), host Yokota, Zama, and Edgren (Misawa), along with St. Mary's.
Extra wrestlers from each school were assigned to fill in gaps for schools without a full lineup. Zenon was assigned to Zama. Luke, Egan, and Shawn were unassigned, so they wrestled exhibition matches between the dual meets. Zenon continued to completely dominate his opponents, albeit on behalf of Zama today. This ran his win streak to 15 straight matches (including exhibition) dating back to last season. He pinned Edgren in 33 seconds, and tech pinned his SMIS, Kinnick, and MC Perry challengers, all 10-0. He still, incredibly, has not allowed a single point to be scored against him this season. Kicking off the exhibition matches, Luke fell victim to a questionable pin call after going up 4-0 on Kinnick. He went 1-1 against Edgren foes, pinning the first and getting pinned by the second. In between the two Edgren matches, he was up 4-2 against SMIS, but allowed a late takedown that proved to be the tiebreaker, so the victory slipped out of his hands. Egan, despite wrestling up a weight class, obliterated the competition in his exhibition matches. The refs mercifully stopped the match after his onslaught of scoring (tech pin, 10-0) against Kinnick. Saint Mary's then sent three different wrestlers to take on Egan, all leaving the match dejected, having been pinned and without scoring any points on Egan. He also bested his brother by 7 seconds for fastest pin at 0:26. Capping off the exhibition matches, Shawn, giving up 15 pounds in his first match against Kinnick, was down 11-5 after the first period, but he flipped the switch in the second period and secured his victory by pin with 29 seconds left in the match. Undeterred by his second Kinnick opponent's 20-pound weight advantage, Shawn swiftly dealt with him by pinning him in under a minute. The full squad will be in action again for a dual meet at Zama on Thursday, January 17, looking to secure an all important conference victory. |
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