Wrestling

February 9, 2007

Lane Tech was not happy with its third place finish at the city championship on Saturday, Jan. 27.

Indians head coach Mark Miedona made sure his team regained their focus for regionals. They did just that by bringing home the Mather Regional title last Saturday over Ridgewood (265-235.5).

"They did wrestle a disappointing city and coming back from that we had a team meeting and I thought they executed perfectly in regionals," Miedona said. "We qualified everyone on the roster for sectionals next week."

Unlike the city finals, Lane Tech got the job done when the match was on the line. Six Indians won regional titles.

"We talked before the final round," Miedona said. "We knew how important every match was. That wasn't the situation at city. The kids didn't want their seasons to end (Saturday). They stepped up and winning is contagious."

Nestor Rivera started Lane's run with a win in the 135-pound championship.

"He wrestled against the Ridgewood kid and it was the best (Rivera) wrestled all year," Miedona said. "He started the momentum for us. Our 140 (Scott Minneci) and our 145 (David Mihaila) won after that."

"Scott Minneci was coming off winning the city championship and he came in very focused. (David) is a first year wrestler and I never met a kid like him that wanted to learn and wanted to win. He just didn't want to let the team down. First time he's finished in first place."

Ridgewood won at 152 but the Indians responded by sweeping the next three matches. Jamelle Williams (160), Yuriy Koverko (171) and Koshion Barfield (189) all captured regional titles and helped Lane bring home the team title.

"Jamelle Williams wrestled a good tournament. He's been there before and knew what he had to do," Miedona said. "Yuriy Koverko came off a very disappointing city meet. It was an eye-opening experience.

"Koshion Barfield also had a very tough city. He did the things this week that he didn't do last week. He pinned his way throughout the tournament and to me he was the most outstanding wrestler."

Other top finishers for the Indians were Tsogt Ganbold (2nd, 119), Justin Cobb (3rd, 125), Raymond Baranda (2nd, 130), Adolfo Valdez (3rd, 152), Justin Vargas (3rd, 215) and Steven Santana (3rd, 285).

Miedona also wanted to thank Lane Tech Athletic Director Rich Rio for his support of the wrestling team all season long.

The Indians -- as well as all other advancing wrestlers from the Mather Regional -- will turn their attention to the Leyden Sectional. Four regionals feed into that meet, which takes place Friday and Saturday.

Von Steuben (3rd, 125 points) and Taft (4th, 115) had very solid meets and will send several wrestlers to sectionals.

Winning regional titles for Von Steuben were Jake Santiago (112) and Victor Roman (285). Other key contributors for the Panthers were Manuel Diaz (2nd, 103) and James Capone (3rd, 135).

Mather (5th, 108.5) had a disappointing day despite championships from Carlos Willhelm at 103 and Eddy Pacheco at 130. Also finishing in the top three for the Rangers were Ali Alafif (3rd, 119) and David Odukoya (3rd, 145).

Amundsen grabbed sixth place behind the efforts of Ernest Reyes (2nd, 112), Mitchell Smith (2nd, 145) and Eric Ortiz (2nd, 285).

Gordon Tech finished in seventh place thanks to Harold White (1st, 215) and Jesus Santiago (2nd, 160).

Other top area finishers were Roosevelt's Nathan Jimenez (3rd, 140) and Jamar Evans (2nd, 152) and Lake View's Niko Miller (3rd, 189).