The Mail-Journal, Volume 28, Number 1, Milford, Kosciusko County, 15 February 1989 — Page 8
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THE MAIL-JOURNAL —Wed., February 15.1989
Sports
Pondroli becomes semi-state champion, advances to slate
By MITCHELL STINSON Sports Writer
He had to overcome pain, fatigue and strong competition at Saturday’s semi-state wrestling meet in Goshen, but Garrett Ponciroli emerged as champion of the 189-pound class. The Wawasee High School senior won his.championship match in dramatic fashion, scoring a last-second takedown en route to a 3-1 victory over Adams Central's Matt Birch It was a cautious title match, with both grapplers taking a tentative approach. Ponciroli scored the first point of the match on an escape at 1:47 of the third period The score was evened at 1 -all when he w as called for stalling with 1:26 left in the contest With about five seconds left and overtime looming on the horizop, Ponciroli finally got the takedown that had eluded him the entire match. Birch attempted a takedown but Ponciroli was waiting with a countermove. "He tried to throw and he didn't have anything," Ponciroli saiid. "He might have slipped a little, and I stepped behind." "Garrett came in there and did what he had to do at the end," said Warriors coach Dave VanLue For a time, it was questionable whether Ponciroli would even make it to the title tilt. He injured his left shoulder after beinfe taken down hard in his semi-final matchup. Ponciroli laid on the mat in pain while VanLue and assistant coach Scott DeHart tended to him He was able to continue with the match, however, and end-
Gymnasts notch two victories at tri-meet raise record to 6-1 for the season
| By MITCHELL STINSON | Sports Writer
Wawasee High School's gym nasties squad notched its highest team score of the season en route to victory at a three-way meet with the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings a d Manchester Squires last night (Tuesday/ Tffie Warriors earned two victories for their performance and raised their record to 6-1 on the season Wawasee's score of 96 75 put the team well ahead of the second-place Vikings, who finished with a total of 77 85 Manchester’s girls brought up the rear with 64.20 The Warriors took the top three positions in every event but the vaulting, where Tippecanoe Valley’s Tina Zorn finished third Warriors coach Tracy Sumpter said her team’s high score was a result of marked improvement on the balance beam The beam has been known to give fits to her squad “Usually, beam is our 1c vest score and it was second highest, next to the floor exercise by one tenth point,' Sumpter said Leading the way on the beam was Darcey Smith and Anne Pohl, who tied for first with impressive scores of 8.35. Angela Kistler was third at 7 90
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ed up beating Muncie South's Dan Wickliffe by a slim 4-2 margin. That victory put him in the championship match, where he found himself in the unfamiliar position of facing an opponent who was stronger than he was. Ponciroli’s quick, active feet counteracted the strength disparity. “I was a lot quicker and he didn't do anything," he said. "He just waited for me." Ponciroli had tough matches all the way through his bracket. After drawing a bye in the first round, he beat Eric Couch, of Oak Hill, by a 3-1 margin. Couch had compiled a record of 29-2 before running into Ponciroli. Wickliffe was 30-5 before the semi-final and Birch was 28-3 in his prePonciroli days. The top four wrestlers from each weight class qualify for state competition at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis Friday Ponciroli will make the trip with an impressive 35-2 record under his belt. Shawn Jones and Tom Mangas weren't as fortunate as their Wawasee teammate. After winning 119-pound championship in last week's Fort Wayne Carroll regional, Jones was eliminated by Warsaw's Rick Hernandez on Friday. He drew a bye in the first round and only needed a victory in his opening match to qualify for state. It just wasn’t in the cards, however, as Hernandez pulled out the 6-3 decision. Jones's record ended at 29-5-1 Mangas bowed out in his first match as well. He was beaten by Ryan Rust of Triton on a technical fall at 5:02 of the match. Mangas qualified for the semi-state with a second-place finish at the regional in the 140-pound
Pohl capped her most successful meet of the season, with first place finishes in two other events as well. She scored an 8 00 to take first in the vaulting competition, and her 8 30 was good enough for first in the floor exercise Kistler finished second in the vaulting with a 7.85 and Zorn was third with 780 Barb Signorelli and Karen Butt tied for second in the floor exercise with scores of 8 20 Kistler’s 8.30 total made her queen of the uneven bars. Britani Stoller was second at 8.10 and Signorelli scored 745 to take third JV Action fn junior varsity action the Warriors came out on top with a team score of 79 60 They even outperformed the varsity squads of the Vikings and the Squires The Warriors’ outstanding depth allows them to alternate some of their top gymnasts between varsity and JV during a meet The only drawback to that strategy is that is doesn't allow Wawasee’s girls to place in individual all-around standings Tina Zorn won the all around with a 30 15 while her Viking teammate Beth, Hughes took second with a 25.85 Wawasee’s JV gymnast Nikki Marsh beat out
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PLAYING WITH PAIN — Wawasee Warriors wrestler Garrett Ponciroli rests with an ice pack on his shoulder, prior to his championship match in Saturday's Goshen semi-slate. The 18-year-old senior was injured in his semi-final match but still’managed to capture the 189-pound class He will travel to Indianapolis Friday for state competition at Market Square Arena. (Photo by Mitchell Stinson)
class. His record ended at 25-6. The sth-ranked Warsaw Tigers beat out two of the topranked teams in the state to win the semi-state. No. 2 ranked Adams Central finished second with 84.5 points, far behind Warsaw's 130-point total' Fort Wayne Northrop
the rest of the varsity field to finish third in the all-around In JV action, Marsh took first on the uneven bars with a score of
V POHL ON BEAM — Wawasee Warriors gymnast Anne Pohl per forms on the balance beam during last night s tri-meet at Wawasee High School. Pohl tied for first in the beam competition with team mate Darcey Smith. She also placed first in vaulting and the floor exercise. The Warriors earned two victories by winning the meet. ' Photo by Mitchell Stinson >
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was third with 63 points and Bellmont finished fourth with a total of 60.5. Lakeland and No l-ranked Muncie South tied for fifth place with 50 points apiece Wawasee finished 16th in the field of 38 teams, with Ponciroli scoring all of the team’s 20 points.
6.65. Signorelli was tops on the balance beam at 7.00 and Kistler placed first in the floor exercise with a 7.70 total. Smith took first
Swimmers take third in NLC meet; ready for sectional
By SCOTT DAVIDSON Sports Writer
“We swam real well and the final team results turned out exactly as the round robin competition during the regular season which was what I expected," remarked Tim Caldwell, Wawasee boys' swim coach, after the Warriors compiled 229 points to finish third in the Northern Lakes Conference swim meet held at Warsaw on Saturday. The meet finished with Warsaw (the regular season conference champions) on top with 291 team points, followed by Concord >236), Wawasee (229), Plymouth (146), North Wood (135), Bremen (56) and Goshen (56). The Warriors received fine efforts from seniors Matt Fryback and David Keener in Saturday's action as Fryback captured the 200 yd. individual medley (2:04.89) and the 100 yd. butterfly <53.58) events while Keener won the one-meter diving event with a new school and conference record of 450.05 points. "Both Matt (Fryback) and David (Keener) turned in fine efforts and the team did a nice job overall as we had at least one personal best time in every event," stated Caldwell In addition to conference champions Fryback and Keener, the Warriors received second place efforts in individual events from Scott Berkey in the 500 yd. freestyle (5:05:64) and David Neterer in one-meter diving <385.60 points). The Wawasee 400 yd. freestyle relay team of Thad Dußois, Brian Neff, Fryback and Berkey (3:24.65) as well as the 2(M) yd. medley relay team of Aaron Dial, Eric Hood, Scott Rozow and Skip Winnebald (1:44.91) also registered second place, performances for the Warriors. The Warriors received a third place effort from Winnebald in the 50 yd. freestyle (23.04) as well as fourth place finishes from
in the vaulting with a 7.40. Smith was also selected as Wawasee’s gymnast of the meet in voting by her teammates. She was given the honor because of her smooth balance beam routine. Loss at Elkhart Central Earlier in the week the Warriors suffered their first dualmeet loss at the hands of Elkhart Central. It just wasn't Wawasee's day, as the Blue Blazers pulled out a 95 4-93.1 home victory on Thursday, Feb 9 Sumpter said the Blue Blazers will probably be the team to beat when sectionals roll around She added that her girls just didn't have a good day on Thursday “1 personally think we’re a better team than they are but we didn’t show it," Sumpter said The Warriors got a taste of stiff competition at the Hiland Invitational on Saturday In a large field that included standout schools like Merrillville and Portage, Wawasee’s girls didn’t place in any of the events Adult basketball league playoffs continue Augsburger’s/Sunbeam/Seyferts, Sturonjac and Wawasee Boat all came away with wins in the second round of the Wawasee Adult Basketball League’s post season tournament on Monday evening Augsburger’s/Sunbeam/Seyferts defeated PAC 60-38 as Al Schlagerhaul was the top scorer for the winners Niles Miller pac ed the PAC effort with 11 points Sturonjac had their offense in high gear as they posted a 115-76 victory over Dana Mark Sumpter and Worth Packer led the win ners as each tossed in 29 points Shaun Beard led the Dana attack with a team high total of 24 points Wawasee Boat rounded out Monday’s action with a 64-54 defeat of Thornburgs as Craig Cripe Jed the victors with a game high 29 points Norm Van Lan ingham led the Thornburg attack with 19 points The semi-finals of the post season tournament will be played -owTuesday. Fet> 21. beginning at 7: js at Wawasee High School
Berkey (1:53.93 in the 200 yd. freestyle), Neff (51.74 in the 100 yd. freestyle), Dial (1:00.15 in the 100 yd. backstroke) and Rozow (1:06.39 in the 100 yd. breaststroke). Additionally, Wawasee recorded two fifth place finishes on Saturday as Rozow turned in a time of 2:10.31 in the 200 yd. individual medley and Neff recorded a mark of 23.50 in the 50 yd. freestyle event. The Warriors will return to the Warsaw pool tomorrow evening with the preliminaries of the 1989 boys' swimming and diving sectional beginning at 5:30 p.m. The sectional will conclude on Saturday with the diving preliminaries beginning at 9 a m in the Warsaw Pool and the finals of both the swimming and diving events scheduled for a 2 p.m. start. Caldwell commented that he believes that Warsaw is definitely the favorite to capture the sectional championship with his team, Concord and Elkhart Central likely to provide the host Tigers with the biggest challenges for the team title. “The sectional should be interesting and should have some fast times and we're looking to qualify a minimum of five guys for the state finals and with some good swims and some breaks, we could hopefully qualify as many as 8-10," said Caldwell. "I think that after the NLC meet we're in really good mental and physical shape and I believe that we’re sitting good for the sectional competition tomorrow and Saturday,” Caldwell concluded.
Freshman squad loses to Warsaw; ends season 9-10
By SCOTT DAVIDSON Sports Writer
For anyone who likes to watch free throws being shot in a basketball game, Wawasee High School was the place to be last night as the Wawasee boys’ freshman squad and the visiting Warsaw Tigers combined to attempt 83 shots from the charity stripe as the Tigers handed the host Warriors a 56-44 setback. Wawasee, which concluded their season with a 9-10 mark, was able to cash in on just 20-42 (47%) from the free, throw line while the visiting Tigers connected on 34-41 (83%) which spell ed the difference in the ball game. “We lost the game at the line and we also lost because we put them on the line by committing fouls that we didn't have to,” stated Warrior coach Roger Brady. The host Warriors grabbed a 10-9 lead in a rough first period of action last night but then the onslaught of official’s whistles began to blow and the Tigers started to hit from the free throw line as they outscored Wawasee 21-13 in the second quarter to grab a 30-23 advantage at halftime. Wawasee started off the second half with a 6-2 run to close the Tiger lead to three points at 32-29 but that was as close as the Warriors could get as Warsaw responded with a 6-1 run to close out the third quarter with a 38-30 lead. The Wawasee squad made one last run at the Tigers to start the fourth quarter, closing the gap to 40-35, hut then the parade to the free throw line began again and the Tigers were able to pull away for the final margin of victory at 56-44. “I thought that offensively we executed better than they did and I thought that the guys really worked hard and hustled," com ; mented Brady, who watched his squad outscore the Tigers 24-22 from the field Thanh Tran Jed the Wawasee effort last night with 13 points while teammates Arie Dewees and Aaron Sincroft each chipped in with 11 points “Overall we turned in a much better performance this time than we did in the previous contest against them," remarked Brady after seeing the freshman Warriors drop a 49-40 decision to Concord in the first round of the NLC tournament played ar Wawasee High School last Thursday The Warriors, who lost to Concord 51-33 during the regular season, fell behind 12-10 after the first quarter against the visiting Minutemen but baffled back to take a 23-20 lead into the locker room at halftime “Our offense was pretty good in the first half and they weren’t able to get any scores off of fast breaks on us and
TIME TO RELAX — Wawasee senior Matt Fryback catches his breath after winning the 200 yd. individual medley race during action from the preliminary round of the conference meet at Warsaw last Thursday. Fryback. who helped the Warriors to a third place team finish in the NLC meet, captured conference championships In both the 200 yd. I.M. and the 100 yd. butterfly events in Saturday's finals of the NLC meet and will be looking to duplicate his efforts in the sectional competition beginning at Warsaw tomorrow . (Photo by Scott Davidson)
that was impressive from a defensive standpoint," remarked Brady. The second half saw the host Warriors go cold on the offensive end of the floor as Concord outscored them 12-4 to lead 32-27 after the third quarter. “We were a little tired in the second half and we missed some easy shots but 1 think that their defense was better on us after halftime," said Brady. The Warriors stayed close throughout the fourth quarter of action versus the Minutemen but were never able to overtake them as the visitors closed out the contest by padding their lead with numerous trips to the free throw line as the Warriors were forced to foul late in the game. "I think that we lost the game on the boards in the second half," emphasized Brady after seeing his club get outrebounded 15-4 in the second half after holding a 10-8 advantage on the glass in the first
b- WTTb _____ —» wl I ■I I Z 1 I U LaaMaLk*! ““ — » .mi—' — LETTING IT FLV — Wawasee freshman Arie Dewees attempts free throw during fourth quarter action from the Warriors 56-44 loss to Warsaw at home last night. I Dewees scored II points last night but it wasn’t enough‘a< the visiting Tigers outscored the hosts 31-26 at the free throw line to come away with the win and conclude the Warriors season at 9-10. (Photoby Scott Davidson» n -
half. "Close games like this one come down to preparation and having the heart to want to win and 1 think that Concord wanted this game more than we did,” Brady stated. The Warriors were paced by Tran who tallied 14 points while teammate Mason Robbins chipped in with 10 markers. Wawasee was led in the rebounding category by Dewees who totaled five caroms to go with eight points. After beginning the season with four straight losses, the freshman eagers rebounded to win nine of their last 15 to finish 9-10. “1 thought that ouydefense was as good as any /f our opponents throughout the season and so was our offenseyexcept that we were hurt by oaf shooting throughout the yeaixAve did show improvement inia Joi of areas from the start of me season and that was pleasing," Brady concluded.