|
LSU Drills Spartans 48-3
|
| |
|
by Scott Vigallon
|
| |
| In the span of four days, the news surrounding the wrestling team has gone from bad to worse to ugly. |
| |
| The bad news: heavyweight Dirk Monoukin went down with an injury Saturday in San Francisco. He'll be out for the
rest of the season. |
| |
| The worse news: 126-pounder Dave Ciprian left the team Monday. He had been SJSU's top wrestler this year. |
| |
| The ugly news: sixth-ranked Louisiana State did not show much sympathy for the Spartans and promptly drilled them
48-3 Wednesday night at Spartan Gym. |
| |
| The loss dropped SJSU to 4-7 for this season, while LSU climbed to 15-4. |
| |
| "I'm discouraged, but they're definitely a tough team," said Spartan wrestling coach Dale Kestel. |
| |
| The LSU Tigers were gunning for a shutout until SJSU's Shannon Felix defeated Gary Langer in the 150-pound match. |
| |
| It wasn't an ordinary match. |
| |
| Felix was ahead 5-3 in the second period when Langer began to tire. |
| |
| "The man's stalling, ref," a fan shouted. |
| |
| After stopping the match, the official looked up in the stands and responded, "Halleluya, brother!" |
| |
| In the third period, Langer took two injury timeouts, which prompted yells of, "This ain't a hospital"
and "The hospital's around the corner." |
| |
| This time, the official didn't respond. |
| |
| Felix went on to win the match 6-4. |
| |
| This was the Spartans' first and last win of the evening. |
| |
| "We knew their team was struggling," LSU coach Larry Sciacchetano said. "We knew they had no heavyweight
and we expected six points." |
| |
| "But when they lost their 126-pounder, it hurt them a lot," he added. |
| |
| According to Kestel, Ciprian left the team because of a combination of pressures from competition, cutting weight,
academics, and personal problems. |
| |
| "Everybody wanted to see him wrestle," the SJSU coach said. "But he's the only one who knows what's
best for him." |
| |
| On the bright side, wrestling fans had a chance to watch the Tiger's Kevin Jackson perform. Jackson, 35-1-1 this
season, is the number one rated 167-pounder in the nation. |
| |
| The muscular junior easily defeated SJSU's Matt Toves 21-6 to add another victory to his record. |
| |
| "He's beaten everybody in the top eight," Sciacchetano said. "And our schedule may be the toughest
in the country." |
| |
| Jackson, who will represent the East squad in the upcoming East-West Dual Meet in Utah, said overconfidence is
not a problem with him. |
| |
| "I try not to anticipate any easy matches," he said. "But i'll take the wins any way they come." |
| |
| This one came rather comfortably for Jackson, just as they came for a majority of his teammates. |
| |
| Kestel, who arrived at SJSU after the team's schedule was made up, said he had no regrets about facing LSU. |
| |
| "If they're willing to come and wrestle, i sure would have scheduled them," he said. "If we had
a full team, it would have been better. But i have no qualms about it." |
| |
|
Click here for .pdf
|
