Sanchez, Charbonneau place at National meet
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
EHS wrestlers make Cadet All-American team
By Joey Berlin
berlin@emporiagazette.com
The Cadet National Freestyle Greco wrestling tournament features the best of the best among the country’s high school wrestlers. So Chase Sanchez and Brandon Charbonneau have joined some great company.
The two Emporia High wrestlers wrapped up their performances at the national tournament in Fargo, N.D., on Wednesday night by competing in the seventh-place match in their respective weight classes. Sanchez, a junior-to-be, finished in seventh place at 145 pounds. Charbonneau, an incoming sophomore and the son of new EHS head coach Dennis Charbonneau, finished in eighth at 119 pounds. Both had already qualified for the Cadet National All-American squad.
“It’s the best competition out there. If you place here, then you must be pretty good,” Sanchez said. “So it’s just a good feeling to know that I placed here.”
The trip to Fargo was Sanchez’s first, Brandon Charbonneau’s second. Brandon’s father, who made the trip up with the two wrestlers, was positively ecstatic after his Spartan grapplers had finished their tournament for the Kansas Cadet team. Sanchez closed his with a pin of California’s Jesse Baldazo in the seventh-place match. Brandon Charbonneau ended up eighth by losing to Oklahoma’s Conner Baxter in a 1-3, 2-2, 4-2 decision.
“I’m just very, very pleased with the way they performed this week,” Dennis Charbonneau said. “They both just battled exceptionally well.”
Brandon, who competed at State last year as a freshman for Clay Center, won his first four matches in Fargo by decision, beating opponents from Idaho, Illinois, Alabama and Arizona. He lost his fifth match to Florida’s Isaiah Varona by a 0-1, 2-0, 1-0 decision, then rebounded to beat Ryan Slaugh of Wyoming 0-1, 1-0, 10-0. He dropped his seventh match by decision to Maryland’s Tyler Goodwin before meeting Baxter.
Last year, Brandon went 1-2 in Greco competition at Fargo.
“It’s a great atmosphere,” Brandon said. “The best kids in the nation are here, and you’ve just gotta go out and compete every match.”
“Brandon, he really showed me some things these last few days,” Dennis Charbonneau said. “He won several of those three-period matches, which is something he hasn’t done in the past. He battled hard. He lost to a kid for seventh that he probably should’ve never lost to. He really didn’t have a good match in that match, but the rest of it, he did very, very well.”
Sanchez — coming off a third-place finish at State last winter — wrestled in seven matches, winning his first four over competitors hailing from Virginia, California, Illinois and Montana. In his fifth match, he lost to Brad Dolezal of Wisconsin — who went on to win the national championship — by a 1-1, 1-0 decision.
“He never got out of position,” Sanchez said. “It was just very hard to score. And when I got that first takedown, I tried to get away, and he took advantage of me trying to run, and just took me down at the very end... which won him the match. He was pretty good.”
Austin Breckendridge of Wyoming beat Sanchez by fall in his sixth match, but against Baldazo, Sanchez scored a second-period pin.
“I got an early pushout, and then he tried to throw a headlock, and I got up and got around him and I was up 2-0 and won that period,” Sanchez said. “And then the second period, he got me in a headlock and was winning 4-0... and I just kicked into him, threw him to his back and got the fall there at the end.”
The two Charbonneaus and Sanchez arrived in Fargo on Friday night, and the tournament began on Saturday. Dennis Charbonneau said he had only taken around eight to 10 wrestlers to the Cadet tournament during his 13 years coaching at Clay Center, where he won four Class 4A State team titles between 2002 and 2008.
“This is really nice to have two of my kids that I’ll be coaching next year... here at the same year,” he said. “This is a great steppingstone. I think all it does, it’s just gonna make these kids better come next year, when they get to wrestle in the high school season.”
It’s also been a good opportunity for the new coach, the new teammate and the veteran Spartan wrestler to solidify their relationship.
“Me and Chase, we’re rooming here together, and we’re real close,” Brandon said. “So it’s good to get that team bonding.”
“It’s been a great opportunity to know Chase,” Dennis said. “Chase is great, and he’s an outstanding competitor. He’s a gamer. When it’s time to get out on the mat, he brings his A-game. I’m very impressed with him, very glad to get to know him better.”
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