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BY MARTIN ZABELL
Times Correspondent | Sunday, December 02, 2007 | (3 comment(s))
PREP WRESTLING
CHICAGO HEIGHTS | The scale said Reggie Reed weighed 215 pounds. The rules said he couldn't wrestle at that weight.
On Saturday, the Bloom Twp. junior overcame the rules and three much larger opponents to win the Outstanding Wrestler award at the inaugural Ultimate Tournament and lead the Blazing Trojans to victory. Reed pinned all of his opponents.
"They were 10 times bigger than me," he said after winning the tourney's heavyweight title. "My mental approach is to stay focused no matter what size they are. Everyone has a flaw. Whatever it is, you have to capitalize on their mistakes."
Reed finished second in the 215-pound division at last season's Homewood-Flossmoor Regional and has also excelled in Greco-Roman wrestling, finishing fourth at a national tourney in Fargo, N.D., during the summer.
This week, though, he struggled to make weight. The scale said he did, but Illinois High School Association rules that discourage rapid weight loss prevented him from competing at 215 in the Ultimate Tournament. Coach Tom Tong moved him up to the heavyweight class with Eddie Castillo, who was fourth in the regional, attending a wedding.
Tong said he was confident that Reed would persevere. In the final, he pinned Abe Duran of East Aurora in 1:01.
"He's a horse," Tong said. "He's very physical, very smooth."
Bloom won the tourney, although its varsity team finished third behind Marmion and T.F. South. Under the rules of this tourney, the cumulative scores of the varsity, junior varsity, and freshman teams mattered most and Bloom won the junior varsity competition and finished a close second behind Oak Lawn at the freshman level.
Reed and Chris Gonzalez (140) were Bloom's only winners at the varsity level.
Gonzalez, who also finished fourth in the national Greco-Roman tourney, said he and Reed excelled because they feel compelled to do so as the team leaders. He also praised his teammate.
"My coaches depend on me," Gonzalez said. "My teammates depend on me. They look up to me and Reggie and we don't want to let anyone down. ... Overall, he did really well. He was wrestling guys 50 or 60 pounds heavier than him and he was able to walk through the tournament easily."
T.F. South edged Bloom in the varsity competition because Kyle Hanson (130), Ellis Dudley (189) and Deshon Ford (215) won individual titles. The other local varsity winner was T.F. North's Justin Michalowski (160).
Despite the fact that very bad weather impaired attendance, Tong said he was pleased with the first Ultimate Tournament. He said the setup of the tourney was designed to build team camaraderie and to develop a different type of tournament.
Tong added that the tournament spotlighted Bloom's recent rise in wrestling.
"It shows that our program is heading in the right direction although the varsity didn't wrestle as well as we wanted to," he said.
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Stephan Riley wrote on Jan 30, 2008 11:25 PM:
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