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Wrestlers Run Into Top Competition
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by Ron Lazzarotti
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| If seeing top quality competition is an asset to winning, the Spartan wrestlers may be on their way to an exciting
and successful season. |
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| Competing last weekend in the Great Plains Freestyle Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Spartans saw tougher
competition than in the NCAA championships, according to coach T.J. Kerr. |
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| "The competition was awesome," Kerr said. "We saw some impressive people and good techniques." |
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| Some of those "impressive people" included last year's 158-pound NCAA champion Bruce Kinseth, and Joe
Corso, winner of the tournament's outstanding wrestler award. |
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| SJSU assistant coach Kevin Hejnal, competing because the Spartans wrestled as a club rather than a team, surprised
a few people when he pinned Kinseth. |
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| Hejnal eventually lost to Dan Zilverberg, and finished sixth in the 158-pound division. |
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| Even more impressive for the Spartans was Eddie Baza. |
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| Baza, a sophomore was last year's PCAA champion in the 126-pound division. |
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| In this weekend's tournament, Baza made it to the semi-finals before being pinned by Corso. |
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| Baza's performance still impressed Kerr, who thinks the young wrestler's future looks good. |
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| "Overall i was pleased," Kerr said. "This helps the wrestlers who have never seen this type of competition.
It gives them direction and technique-wise it was good exposure." |
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| "In a way, this tournament was tougher than the NCAAs because of the older guys," he added. |
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| The "older guys" were those wrestlers who have completed their college eligibility, but wrestled in this
tournament, like Kinseth. |
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| The tournament also gave the wrestlers a good perspective on the type of competition they can expect to face in
the NCAA championships, according to Kerr. |
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| The Sunkist Kids of Arizona captured the top spot, their first major team championship in the short history of
the Phoenix-based club. |
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| The Spartans next host Chico State at 7:30 pm in Spartan Gym. |
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