East All-Stars Dominate West
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Mike Carnes (Nebraska Wrestling Illustrated)
06/11/2001
NORFOLK - The East All-Stars got rolling early and won several close matches to dominate the West in the 12th annual Nebraska Scholastic Wrestling Coaches Association's All-Star Classic. Buoyed by a dominating effort in the lower and middle weights, the East walked away with an easy 21-11 win over the West in front of an estimated 550 fans at Norfolk Catholic High School. The East team won five of the first six matches and were never threatened after that, winning the all-star classic for the second straight year. "We felt pretty confident coming in that we were going to do well," East co-head coach Dan Davenport of Waverly said. "We have some talented guys and we matched up well with the West." Davenport said his team came into camp ready to battle. "The kids came into camp ready to wrestle and that made our job a lot easier," he said. "The West had some quality guys, especially in the upper weights, and we won some matches that, I think, were upsets." Two-time state champion Ryan Terry of Omaha North outlasted St. Paul's Kyle Kasperbauer in one of the key matches of the day at 165 pounds. Kasperbauer attacked early and took Terry down to open the match, but Terry responded and was able to pull away late for an 11-7 decision over the Class C 160-pound state champion. Leading 6-4, Terry was able to reverse Kasperbauer with 1:02 left in the match to take a four-point lead. Kasperbauer brought Terry down with :53 seconds left and conceded an escape, but Terry clinched the match with a takedown in the final 10 seconds of the match. "After I got that (8-4) lead, I felt I had control and knew I wasn't going to let it get out of my hands," Terry said. "My conditioning wasn't all the way on top and he was a strong wrestler, but I was able to stick it out." Terry's win seemed to spark the East, as Tyler Wood of Greeley and Paul Kester of Clearwater followed with wins, and the East went on to win 18 of the 24 matches contested. "We were a little surprised," West co-head coach Lynn Reinhart of Chase County said. "I thought maybe we'd do a little bit better, but there were a lot of really close matches that we just let slip away." The East won five matches by pin, with Wood, Clifford Faust of Pope John, Rick Bayer of Howells, Jeremy Slaughter of Waverly and Jason Zakaras of Central City recording pins. West got pins from Kasperbauer, Ryan Adkisson of Columbus and Jeff Sylvester of Morrill.