Rocks win 3 at UT Triple Duals
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By Shannon Heaton | Thursday, November 22, 2007 |
By a wrestler’s senior year, the United Township Triple Duals — serving as the season-opener for the host Panthers and Moline, and the second date for Rock Island — starts to become old hat, almost like a comfort food.
That seems appropriate, given its pre-Thanksgiving date and given the sport’s tendency to favor experience over youth, particularly early in the season.
Don’t believe it?
The Rocks’ Donotello Crisp — sporting a good-sized bump and eight stitches above his left eyebrow stemming from a practice incident with teammate Reese Taylor — was able to overcome the pain in his head by bringing the pain on the mat, putting together three wins at 152 pounds Wednesday night.
“I took a big gash (from Taylor), but I just wrapped my head back up and went back to practice,” said Crisp, whose wins helped the Rocks pick up three dual victories over Morton (48-33), Yorkville (36-35) and Sycamore (37-26). “We had a tough loss (Tuesday) against East Peoria, and we talked about not giving up. We’re very excited. It’s the first time Rocky’s won three in a row at UT.”
Though Taylor (145) emerged from the incident relatively unscathed by comparison, he and fellow senior Francisco Casteneda (119) also were unbeaten for the Rocks.
“Those guys are the kind of kids we’re getting now,” said RI coach Larry Kanke, who added junior unbeaten Sepehr Kalhor (130) to his senior trio. “I’m so excited and happy at what we showed after coming off a loss.“
Just one mat over from the Rocks, Moline’s Jesse Colon and Harrison Strafford — both seniors — overcame 0-3 Triple Dual efforts in 2006 with three wins each for the Maroons at 125 and 152, respectively. The Maroons went 1-2, losing by three points to Kaneland (36-33) and six to Yorkville (36-30).
“A lot of us, including myself, see that we could be better every day,” said Colon, a state qualifier at 125 last season. “We’re very close (to turning a corner). We can just see it. Last year here, we lost quite a few by a lot of points, and this year (the losses) both came down to the last match. We want to make teams scared of us.”
Losing starting 145-pounder Austin Guyton to an injury hampered the Maroons’ chances. “Losing Austin was a tough loss, but other kids stepped up big for us,” said Moline coach James Ealy. “Last year, we got beat 123-20 here, but (this year) we had a lot of kids that we weren’t really counting on who did a good job for us.”
The host Panthers also had two seniors — Nick Meyers (171) and Christopher Owens (189/215) string together three wins on the night.
“I’m excited, I feel more experienced. It’s a lot better than 215,” said Owens, who qualified for state at 215 as a junior but wrestled twice at 189 Wednesday night.
Those wins, along with 3-0 efforts from juniors Billy Christiansen (103) and Anthony Angel (145), helped fuel UT’s dual win over Morton and two competitive losses (one point to Kaneland and 12 to Sycamore, in a dual where the Panthers trailed by 21 at one point).
Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com.
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