Mojave grabs lead, seeking title repeat

After winning the Sunset Regional wrestling tournament in 2007 with four medalists, Rattlers coach Colin Wilson has a few more in mind.

Mojave enters the second day of the tournament with 871/2 points, a lead of 121/2 over second-place Cimarron-Memorial, and 10 wrestlers in the semifinals.

But unlike last season, when Mojave had four wins, five second-place finishers and three thirds, Wilson has his Rattlers hunting for the top.

“That was pretty much our goal from the beginning of the season,” Wilson said. “We knew that we didn’t have quite the number of skilled wrestlers as last year, so the whole idea this season was to improve on individual results.

“And that will translate into a team result.”

So far, not much has been lost in translation.

But Mojave has three head-to-head semifinal matchups with the Spartans scheduled for today, when competition resumes at 10 a.m. at Sierra Vista.

Chief among those matchups is the heavily anticipated battle between Mojave’s Reggie Powers and Cimarron’s Robert Atwood at 215 pounds.

Even though the championship may come down to just a few matches, though, Wilson isn’t discounting the Rattlers’ other opponents.

“We talk to the boys about who in this tournament is their No. 1 competitor?” Wilson said. “In many cases, it’s not a Cimarron wrestler. They have some great wrestlers, and most are definitely at the top of the list.

“But that’s kind of kept us from concentrating too much on one team.”

The same can’t be said for Spartans co-head coach Mike Garcia. He knows his team has one hurdle.

“Honestly, (Mojave) was the team to beat walking in the door, and that’s fine,” Garcia said. “That doesn’t mean you give them anything, it just means they are the team. They’ve got the experience; they’ve won it before.”

Perhaps the surprise team of the tournament is host Sierra Vista, in third place with 63 points. The Lions are tied with the Spartans with eight wrestlers in the semifinals.