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Wrestler gets a hold on the gold
By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer LAKELAND -- Kevin Epifanio and Matt McDermott had watched a grueling six minutes of wrestling on the mats from Zephyrhills heavyweight Shane Hand, but it wasn't until the final seconds had ticked away that they truly had fear in their eyes. Having locked up only the second individual state championship in school history, the 270-pound junior jumped up in celebration and ran toward his coaches. A lighter wrestler's natural instinct would be to jump into their arms, and for the first time all night, the coaches silently hoped the wrestler would act his size. As he bore down for perhaps the night's biggest takedown, Hand instead went low and wrapped one huge arm around each coach, ending a memorable night with the kind of bear hug that completes a long season of hard work, determination and hope. "I finally won it," said Hand, who had missed the finals by a single point as a sophomore, settling for sixth in his first trip to the Lakeland Center. He returned to the same podium Saturday, but this time with a gold medal around his neck. "I just can't believe it." Hand's 8-4 victory over Cardinal Gibbons sophomore Leon Harrington wasn't an easy one. In the first period, Harrington got Hand on his back and nearly ended the match early with a pin, but Hand was strong enough to keep one shoulder off the mat. He trailed 4-2 after the first of three two-minute periods, and his comeback had more to do with quickness than strength. To start each period, one wrestler chooses a position -- top, bottom or neutral -- and while a strong wrestler might opt for the top, which allows him to get a hold and control his opponent, a quicker wrestler might take the bottom, hoping to get the single point awarded for escaping such an initial hold. Hand chose the bottom position to open the second period, but not with hopes of an escape. Instead, when Harrington made his move, Hand reached around and suddenly pulled him underneath, earning not the escape point but a two-point reversal for his quick switch. "We chose down for a reason -- we saw momentum coming our way and wanted the quick points," said Epifanio, whose team finished 11th in the state, two points behind Pasco. "Once we got that, I knew we were in the ballgame." Hand had taken control -- he would take a 5-4 lead when Harrington was penalized for fleeing the wrestling circle as under Hand's relentless hold. In the final period, Hand clinched his win with a takedown with 15 seconds left, allowing the crowd to count down the final seconds as he trapped his opponent helplessly on the mat. After his coaches, one of the next hugs for Hand was teammate Jason Reed, who with Abel Robinson and Gary Smith had drilled with him all season in practice. Hand's dominance kept them out of the starting lineup, but they stayed on the team with one purpose: to keep Hand busy in practice, a challenge he came to fully appreciate Saturday night. "He gets no rest in practice," Epifanio said. "There are three or four guys who work with him. I'll throw a guy in -- boom -- he gets tired, another one comes in. He's getting a breather very rarely in practice." Hand had needed to go the full six minutes just four times in his previous 50 matches, having pinned 39 opponents and piled up 15-point leads to win by technical fall against others. After waiting until the last of 42 matches at the Lakeland Center, Hand's conditioning work from all season put him in good shape to grind out the last few minutes on a wrestler's ultimate dream. His name will join Dan Zawicki's on the "Wall of Fame" in the Zephyrhills wrestling room as the school's only state champions. Of course, Hand has a chance to repeat the honor next year as a senior. "I can't say enough about what he's done, the time he's put in not only for himself but for our whole program," Epifanio said. "It's come together real well."
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From today's Pasco Times |
