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SJSU Wrestling Archives The Spartan Daily 1-26-81 |
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Spartans Make Mat History |
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by Jerry McDonald |
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| Spartans wrestling coach T.J. Kerr was working on only four hours sleep, but was in a good mood as he leaned back
in his chair. "Now i can retire, or at least get a two-year contract and a raise," Kerr jested. Kerr had reason to be in a good mood. He and his team had made history on the night before at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. The SJSU wrestling team had handed the Mustangs their first defeat to a California school in the school's illustrious wrestling history. The 20-16 win on last Thursday was still fresh in his mind. "I'm floating," Kerr said. "Beating Cal Poly has always been one of my goals. I had trouble sleeping when i got home." Against California competition, Mustang coach Vaughn Hitchcock had a record of 158-0-1. A contingent of about 100 Spartan fans made the trip south to witness his first defeat. "Our fans that were there were louder than theirs, and the attendance was around 1,500," Kerr said. "They were kind of quiet toward the end. It was like seeing John Wooden get beat." The matmen didn't exactly have an auspicious beginning to their trip to San Luis Obispo. First, the van they use for traveling broke down, forcing them to rent a recreational vehicle. Heavy rains then slowed the trip to a crawl. "Things started out poorly," Kerr said. "When we finally got there, we saw that their mat was smaller than we are used to using." That didn't stop the Spartans from running off to a quick 12-0 lead with wins in their first three matches. First, Albert Perez decisioned Larry Nicholson 5-2 at 118; Wayne Jones had a courageous 17-3 win over highly regarded Mike Barfuss at 126; then Eddie Baza forced Chris DeLong into disqualifying after leading him 26-11 at 134. Jones was wrestling with one pulled hamstring, then towards the end of his match, pulled the other one, forcing him to compete on one leg for the final 37 seconds of the match. "Wayne Jones is one tough son of a gun," Kerr said. "A lot of people thought Barfuss could beat him, but a lot of our guys were fired up because they wrestled at camps directed by Hitchcock and remembered him always saying that he'd never been beaten by a California school." Jones' win could be costly, however. Injuries suffered in the match could keep him out as long as six weeks, according to Kerr. Baza had rolled up a huge 26-11 lead before the referee disqualified DeLong for his fourth stalling violation. The Mustangs closed to 12-4 after Jay Slivkoff was defeated at 142, but Reggie Thompson stretched the lead to 15-4 with an 11-4 win over Louis Montano at 150. At 156, the Mustangs' Chris Troxler narrowly defeated Dennis Shea 4-2 to move the Mustangs to 15-7, and another close loss by Andy Tsarnas at 167 put the pressure on 177 participant Dave Brouhard. Brouhard was matched against Bert Ekern, the younger brother of Carl Ekern, now of the Los Angeles Rams and an alumni of SJSU. It was no contest. Brouhard dominated, winning 17-2 and pushing the team score to 20-10. "I had Carl out for wrestling for a few weeks when he was here, and had him in my boxing class," Kerr recalled. "He came up to me after the match and said 'I guess your conditioning paid off,' and it did. We were obviously in good enough shape to execute our moves." 190-pounder Jerry Morrison knew that all he had to do was lose a close decision to secure the first Mustang loss in 19 years. And that is what he did, losing 6-3. "I think Jerry could have won, but he was thinking of the team first and knew if he just stayed close, we'd win," Kerr said. By the time SJSU heavyweight Guy Heath went to the mat, the Spartans were already celebrating their win. Heath's 9-4 loss made the history-making final score 20-16. "This was a big win for all of wresting in California," Kerr said. "Now they can't say 'We've never lost.' " |
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