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Herushes at the opponent, laces one arm under the opponent’s arm and locks his hand around the neck — a half nelson! This thrilling move iswhat led junior captain Sam Berry tovictory at the Section Championship on Feb. 28. TheSection Championship is a small tournament among seven schools: Lowell, Lincoln, O’Connell, Balboa, Washington, Mission and Galileo.The first place winners from each division in the Section Championship representedSan Francisco at the State Championships. Berry won first in the 189-weightclass at the Section Championship and headed toStateChampionships on March 6. “My first match at State was a wake-up call because I got pinned in 48 seconds when I wrestled topwrestler Garrett Jones from WoodCreek High School,” Berry said. Although Berry did not place atState, he did gain the valuable opportunity to wrestle opponents from all over California. “State is agreat place to see and experience because you will never find quality tourney elsewhere,”Berry said.
Meanwhile,at the Section Championship, the team placed fourth out of seven
schools with a score of 80 points, defeating the LincolnMustangs, O’Connell Boilermakers and Balboa Buccaneers. The top three winnerswere the Washington Eagles with 200 points, Galileo Lions with 118 points and MissionBears who accumulated 101 points. However,Lowell did have some individual winners walking out of the event. Besides Berry’s win, junior Jacob Clinton won second placein the [154]-weight class. “Iwas really excited because I achieved my goal for the season, but also disappointed because the rest of the team members couldn’tcome with me to State,” Berry said. AlthoughBerry’s first matches were electrifying, his final match was the one that really mattered. “I took my final match reallyseriously,” Berry said. As soon as the match started, Berry dove for the leg of the defending285-pound Yoyci Medina from Washington, caught it and manipulated his opponent onto hisback for a few seconds. This earned Berry two points for almost pinning his opponentdown and set the tone of the match. Clintonalso took his matches seriously. In his first match, Clinton teched his opponent, drawing ahead of his opponent by a large15 points.Most of these points were “back points”, awarded in which he put his opponent’s backto the mat, but not in a full pin. However, Clinton was faced with a very strong andfast opponent in his final match, which resulted in his second place finish. “It feltgood to win something after all the practices,” Clinton said. “One of my goals for nextseason is to move up to the 215 pound weight class.” Thoughthe team did not necessarily have the best season, Berry acknowledges his team had astrong year of wrestling and has high hopes for next season. “The team did a really good job this year and next year will be evenmore fun because we will have a bigger and more experienced team,” Berry said. TheLowell’s choice for MVP is Berry. He hasbeen wrestling since his freshman year and has a genuine love for the sport. Not only hasBerry improved drastically throughout the years, from an amateur freshman to a wrestlercompeting across the state. Although Berry is climbing up the wrestling ladder, senioryear will be his last year wrestling. “Although I really love wrestling, collegewrestling is much more intense then high school wrestling and I want to focus myenergy towards my education,” Berry said |
to listen.