Lions will host 28 teams on Saturday

On Thursday (Jan. 28) the CGHS wrestling team traveled to Central Oregon for dual meets with Sky-Em foes Sisters and La Pine. The Lions clobbered Sisters 75-3 with two of the highlights being David Berg’s 46-second pin at 135 pounds and Trevor Sustaire’s fall in 30 seconds at 140 pounds.

Cottage Grove then took on La Pine, who CG coach Bill Thompson described as “young, excited scrappers.”

Sophomore Noe Villalobos won at 112 and senior Brandon Blakesley (119) pinned his Hawk foe. Freshman Marc Fisher (160) won both his matches in Central Oregon as the Lions prevailed 58-21.

The next day the Grovers hosted a four-team tourney and the Lions won two out of three of their matches at the CGHS gym. The CG boys overwhelmed Central 71-6 and dominated Hidden Valley 48-26. South Umpqua edged the Lions 42-38.

Top performers for the Lions were Grant Thompson (215) and Noe Villalobos (112), who won all three of their matches. Mason Nowak (285) won his two matches by pinning his opponents in less than one minute, and Tanner Sustaire pinned one of his opponents in less than 20 seconds.

“It was good to see other people than who are in our league,” Thompson said.

Thompson has been particularly happy with the progress of Fisher, the freshman, and senior Derek Kovack. They both could be the No. 2 seed at their weights at district.

“Some may think what they’ve accomplished was unexpected, but I kind of figured these kids should be performing,” Thompson said.

Expected to be the No. 1 seeds for the Lions at the district meet in La Pine on Feb. 12 are Villalobos, Josh Stanley, the Sustaire twins, and Grant Thompson.

“For getting a slow start, we are where we want to be, so to speak,” Thompson explained. “We’re still not in top condition, but that will come in the next couple of weeks. We’re going to hit it hard this week and the week of districts kind of back away and get them hungry for the mat.

It’s kind of like a boxer. When they get out on the mat at districts we want them to be hungry to compete. We’ll get their cardio up real good and kind of taper and stay away from competition and work on technique.

Our second-level kids are wrestling really tough. Our kids have gotten in a lot of wrestling, even those who aren’t the varsity guys. We’ve prepared them to go to battle for district; that’s been our goal. If we can finish out with Pleasant Hill (Thursday night) and win our last dual meet, hopefully we’ll get better and better."

The Lions will host 28 teams on Saturday morning coming to the CGHS gyms for the annual Cottage Grove Invitational.

“Most of the best teams in the state will be here,” Thompson said.













































For the complete article see the 02-03-2010 issue.

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