Friday, Dec. 09, 2011

Dos Palos High event gives athletes many opportunities to shine

Format designed for action, gives teams chance to shape up

About a dozen wrestling teams descended on Dos Palos High for the Dos Palos Invitational, a tournament that had a slightly different format.

Where most wrestling tournaments use a double-elimination, wrestle-back formula, the invitational features a pool of wrestlers in each weight class, with the goal being for everyone to get a lot of matches.

"I still think competition-wise, it was a good early-season tournament because almost everyone got somewhere between four and seven matches in two days," Dos Palos wrestling coach Frank Lemos said. "That early-season contact is good."

It offered a good chance for inexperienced wrestlers to make their mistakes early on, such as Los Banos' Greg Williams, who had never wrestled before this season. Williams was penalized a point for an illegal throw against DP's Ben Meza, and was called for several illegal holds in a later match.

"I thought we performed well, considering we have a lot of two- and three-sport athletes, and we haven't had a lot of time to get ready," Lemos said. "Some teams, it was obvious a lot of them don't play football because they were in good wrestling shape."

For LB's part, after the two-day tournament, the Tigers came home and defeated Merced High 36-32.

Enterprise reporter David Witte can be reached by phone at 388-6565 or by e-mail at sports@losbanosenterprise.com

Enterprise reporter David Witte can be reached by phone at 388-6565 or by e-mail at sports@losbanosenterprise.com