FEBRUARY 1, 2004
Smoke Signals 5
Wrestlers
Ready For R Run At State
By Ron Karten
With the wrestling season more than halfway
through, Willamina wrestlers stood at 7-4 as a
team while taking first at two tournaments held
in December, one at Scio and one at home.
A number of kids stand a good chance of go
ing to state, according to coach Ariah Fasana,
including Mitchell Jones at 103 pounds whose
record as a freshman is 11-7. Currently, said
Fasana, Jones is ranked in the Top 10 in the
state and he has already wrestled every kid
above him. Wrestling Lee Bardin of Harrisburg,
ranked second in the state, Jones went all the
way into overtime before dropping the match.
Also potentially heading for state are:
Randy Thayer, a 112-pound sophomore, is
17-1 this year, and also ranked among the
state's top 10 wrestlers in his class.
Jared Staben, a 119-pound junior, is 14-4.
He has beaten the 10th ranked wrestler in this
class. Last year, Staben took 4th at state.
Vince Fagundes, a 130-pound senior is 11-4.
He also took fourth in
state last year.
Fagundes had "some in
juries this year that kind
of slowed him down," ac
cording to Fasana.
0 Steve Schussman, a
140-pound senior is 14
3 this year. He has been
to state a couple of times
already. Freshman
year, he placed 5th at
state and last year he
was district champ but
did not place at the state
level. - Currently,
' Schussman ranks in the
state's Top 10 in his class.
Koby Bryant, a 152-pound junior, is 16-3 this
season and also ranked in the Top 10 in his class
at state. He also is a potential contender at state,
said Fasana, depending on the status of an in-
Photos by Peta Tinda
7 0 ! v
Top Grappler Steve Schussman, who ranks in the Top 1 0 in his class, works for a pin against Chris
Strieker of Nestucca.
Koby Bryant
jured knee. Bryant had an MRI last week and
the verdict is still on the rest of this season.
Denny Derum, a 171-pound junior has a
record of 16-3 this year. He is ranked 4th in the
state in his class. "He's tough and he's a good
hard worker," said Fasana.
Brody Collins, a 189-pound sophomore, is 13
10, and ranked 11th in his class. "He's really
improving a lot," said the coach, and is a pos
sible contender at state. . : . . .
Also wrestling this season is Tribal member
Cedar Westley, a 145-pound junior, out for the
first time this year. "He's been working really
hard," said Fasana, though he also has been
struggling with a back injury.
Joel Warnicke, a 160-pound senior, is 12-11
this season, but Fasana said that he's a pretty
tough kid and has beaten a couple wrestlers
ranked in top 10.
"Overall, it's been just a so-so season for the
team," said Fasana. "We've been up and down.
After the break, we came back and had a couple
weeks of some lows. There were matches I think '
we should have won. Last night, though, we
had a tournament and they wrestled pretty well."
"Basically, a lot of the kids are getting focused
now. We're putting in a few hard weeks and
getting ready for districts."
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Winning Move Randy Thayer, 112 pound sophomore who is in the top ten wrestlers in his class, defeated Josh Boyce of Nestucca during the January 1 1 wrestling
meet in Willamina.