Sports - Herd's wrestlers are heard this time - sacbee.com
Sports - Herd's wrestlers are heard this time - sacbee.com: "Herd's wrestlers are heard this time By Mark McDermott -- Bee Sports Staff Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, February 10, 2005 Elk Grove High School wrestling coach Pat Coffing's silence leading up to the Sac-Joaquin Section Dual Team Championships last Saturday at Folsom High spoke volumes about what he truly was thinking. Refusing to talk to the media about his team's chances of dethroning 12-time Division I section and Monticello Empire League champion Vaca-ville only fueled the belief the Herd couldn't win. But the third-year coach steadfastly kept his lip buttoned. Why would anyone in the Sacramento area think Delta League champion Elk Grove could win anyway? After all, Vacaville had won seven consecutive D-I titles and just a week before the section duals beat 16-time champion Ponderosa 34-21 in a nonleague encounter deemed the 'Match of Champions.' Or, perhaps Coffing stayed mute because he saw the Elk Grove-Vaca-ville matchup as the true 'Match of Champions.' After Vacaville's victory against Ponderosa, Bulldogs coach Rich Penaluna said he hoped the standing-room only event wouldn't take any of the luster away from the section dual championships. As it turned out, Penaluna had nothing to worry about. All that 'Match of Champions' hoopla did was fire up Elk Grove. Elk Grove won eight of the 14 matches and received clutch performances from 125-pound Nick Jordan and 217-pound Ryan Coulson. Jordan decisioned Mike Kent 2-1 and Coulson pinned Jon Feld in what was billed as the two matches that easily could determine the outcome. Final score: Elk Grove 31, Vacaville 27. 'The wrestling doesn't end here,' said Coffing after the match. 'Let's ride this momentum right into the postseason.' Despite the Herd's triumph, Coffing defended the Vacaville-Ponderosa match and all its hype. "They are two of the most storied programs in the Sacramento area and deserve to call that match anything they wanted to," Coffing said. "Between them, they've won 28 championships. We've only won the section title twice." Vacaville, Ponderosa and Elk Grove are the only teams to win D-I section dual titles since the tournament's inception in 1986. Vacaville has won 12 times and Ponderosa six times from 1991 to 97 before moving to D-II and Elk Grove twice. Coffing was the 132-pounder on the Herd's 1990 championship team under coach Jeff Winger. Coffing, who won a bronze medal at the state championships at 132 pounds in 1992, would replace Winger in 2003. Elk Grove's accomplishment was truly the perfect team effort. The boxscore will show the Herd won the matches it should have won, saved points in the matches it was expected to lose and won those two pivotal matchups. "Sometimes an individual loss is a victory for the team," Penaluna said at the Ponderosa match. He was right. Sophan Mey (105), Nic Smith (132), Gavin Ludwig (137), Adrien Abeyta (142) and Kyle Hinegardner (162) all lost, but they did their jobs. They did not get pinned and yielded only 20 points to the Bulldogs. After wins by Andre Phillips (114), Max Baker (121) and Jordan, Elk Grove led 12-5. Vacaville swept the next three weight classes but could only take a 16-12 lead. John Daly (147) and J.D. Thrall (154) earned decisions to wrestle the lead back at 18-16. As expected, the state's No. 1-ranked Kyle Dubbs (162) beat Hinegardner, leading to three of the most anticipated matches of the day. Michael Drake, ranked No. 1 in the state at 171 pounds, major-decisioned Bo Lukehart 13-4 and twin brother John Drake, ranked No. 5 in the state and last year's silver medalist in Bakersfield, edged Clayton Jack 8-6. With Elk Grove ahead 25-21, two matches left and Vacaville expected to win by pin at heavyweight, the weight of a community, a campus and a team was placed on the shoulders of Coulson. The junior All-Delta League football player squared off against Feld, ranked No. 8 in the state. They met earlier this season at the Galt Tournament, with Coulson winning 3-2. The match appeared to be a tossup. However, Coulson dominated. He led 5-0 after the first period, 7-0 after two and was leading 11-0 when he registered the nail-in-the-coffin pin. "Ryan won one of the most important matches in the history of our program," Coffing said. Next on the Elk Grove agenda is the Delta League Tournament on Saturday at Franklin High, followed by the Northwest Subsection at Nevada Union on Feb. 18-19; the section championships at Pitman-Turlock on Feb. 25-26; and the state tournament in Bakersfield on March 4-5.
posted by Chris Lombardo @ 2/10/2005 09:26:00 PM
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