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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