Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

Teams Rack Up Tournament Experience

Wrestling Journal

By John English

Contributing Writer

The Grapevine wrestling team opened the season with a seventh-place finish at the Warrior Invitational at Arlington Martin, and promptly followed it up with a victory in the Bison Tournament.

Coach Albert Lujan said his team has looked pretty good so far and said getting some of his wrestlers back from football has really helped.

"Things are going OK," Lujan said. "We’ve had two tournaments so far. We had quite a few starters out [of the competition] at Martin with football season just getting over with. We had the Bison tournament at Sunset High School, and we won that."

Lujan said the win in the Bison Tournament was big for his team.

"It was pretty good," Lujan said. "It’s always good to go into Thanksgiving with a tournament under your belt. Hopefully, we can continue to grow and compete at a high level."

Lujan said he has had a couple of standout wrestlers to this point, including Joe Andrews, who is undefeated, and Even Perry, who has also not lost a match.

Over at Colleyville Heritage, coach David Traver said he has experienced a similar situation to Lujan.

"We are waiting for guys to get in from football," Traver said. "But we’re doing OK."

Traver said he was treated to a very good match at the Martin tournament, as two of the top 10 wrestlers in the country, one of them being Colleyville Heritage’s own Jeremy Sandoval, squared off against each other.

"Jeremy Sandoval won first place and beat Troy Silver from Bishop Lynch," Traver said. "It was kind of fun to be able to see the two of them wrestle."

Colleyville Heritage also competed in the Bison Invitational, and Traver said he had a couple of wrestlers have good performances there.

"Chase Barlow finished fourth," Traver said. "Adam Courtney finished fourth at 112, and Chris Billo finished third at 119. Jeremy was out of town for that tournament."

Colleyville Heritage will compete in its home tournament on Dec. 6, and Traver said there are some definite objectives for the meet.

"This will be a time for the football players who have been out to start getting in better shape," Traver said. "They should be able to step in and do OK, and I would like for us to finish in the top three at the tournament."