Wrestling in the medal rounds, ASIJ took home two championships:
- At 108 Bryce tech'ed a total stud from Kadena 10-0 in 1:09 - At 148 Rin tech'ed a college level beast from Kinnick 10-0 in 0:47 seconds Both of these were utter domination of the best their weight brackets had to offer. It was pretty incredible to watch. Other individual placings shook out as follows: 2nd - Take, Dani 4th - Ira, Kai, Liam 5th - Kaisei, Shawn Each of those medals were worth teams points. Added together ASIJ garnered 63 points, good for 4th place behind Kubasaki (79), St. Mary's (69), and Kinnick (68) out of the 14 teams participating. Following the individual tournament, the team tournament started. The teams were broken up into Division I and Division II. The top 4 placers plus Kadena and Humphreys are in D-I. The teams were seeded according to placement in the tournament, with the top two teams getting a first round bye. Being 4th, the Mustangs faced the 5th highest D-1 team in the first round. Kaisai kick-started the kerfuffle against Kadena against the 101 opponent who sent him down to the 5th place match yesterday. He got even with a 9-4 victory that put us on the right path. Newly crowned Far East Champ Bryce also had a rematch, this against the Far runner-up from just an hour or so prior. Instead of tech'ing him, Bryce finished the muscle-bound behemoth (for his weight...they're 108 pounds) with a second period pin this time, to vary things up a little bit. In a familiar refrain, Katsumi met a foe from yesterday, the one who had put him out of the tournament at 115. The tune was sweeter this time as Katsumi came out aggressive and got a first period pin. The score was a good looking 13-0 at this point. In yet another rematch, the Kadena kid who Ira squeaked by yesterday was no match for the 122-pound Mustang today. Ira got out to an early lead, let him in a little, and slammed the door shut by scoring 8 straight points for the tech win. Far East runner-up Take was looking forward to his rematch against the one who took his title away earlier in the day. The replay didn't go as well, with the good guy getting pinned. Kai looked to get things straight and got out to an 8-1 lead before getting caught and pinned. Having closed the gap to 17-10, Kadena had just unlocked their hope chest, with little rays of possibly pulling off a comeback win shining out. Ricky grabbed away the hope chest, shut the lid tight, locked it up and swallowed the key (in regular words, he tech'ed his guy in the first period at 141). Just to make sure there was no glimmer of hope left in their world, Rin tech'ed his kid at 148 in less than a minute Rin still hasn't allowed a point this season). Not to be outdone, Shawn got a first period pin to push the lead to 30-10. Liam and Dani took forfeits for the final score. The reward for winning is tougher opponents. ASIJ's reward was the Far East team champ Kubasaki, who had a first round bye in the team tournament and were lollygagging around just spectating as the Mustangs were toiling with their first round foe. For some Mustangs this would be their 8th match in two days (that's a lot). After a designated time had passed, the team semi-finals started with, as per usual, Kaisei kicking it off. He wrestled tough against the Far East champ at 101 but succumbed by pin. Bryce flipped the script on Kubasaki with a 10-0 tech (so glad he's on our team; he's just amazing). At 115 Katsumi took on the Far East champ an didn't give up a pin, which saved a team point that would possibly be crucial to advancing to the finals, depending on how the rest of the matches went. Ira re-faced his medal round foe, but was physically depleted compared to his well-rested opponent, so got tech'ed. Take broke out of his mini-losing streak in a big way with a HUGE pin from a 4-point takedown that brought ASIJ within 13-9. Going against the new Far East champ at 135, Kai wrestled really tough, even taking the lead before getting taken down and pinned in the second period. In a see-saw match at 141, Ricky scored 6 straight, allowed 6 straight, got a takedown to put him to his back, then got rolled through and pinned. Flying in like a 148-pound Superman rescuing a damsel in distress, Rin flew around the mat scoring another 10 straight for another tech fall victory pulling ASIJ back within 23-13. Shawn got out to a nice 6-2 lead at 158 before the gauge read empty on his gas tank and he lost 13-6. Liam got one back, taking down and turning, and turning, and turning, and turning his opponent for a make-it-look-easy win, an almost exact repeat of their match yesterday. Dani wrestled so tough against the kid favored to win the Far East a couple days ago, frustrating his every action and scoring on him at 215, but the other guy's throw skills are highly developed and he popped a throw out with just the right timing to pin Dani. Giving up forfeits at 180 and heavyweight gave the final score of 41-17 ASIJ will face St. Mary's for 3rd place in the team tournament tomorrow after they beat Humphreys but lost to Kinnick today.
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PhilSend me a note at [email protected] if you have ideas for a story or corrections/additions to these write-ups. Archives
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