City-Catholic League Championships
Varsity Wrestling Tournament Outstanding Wrestler Award - Mike Johnson (Madison)
Championship
Final
Semi-Finals
Walsch
(BK) WBF, 3:49.
Champ Hates to Wrestle
By Jim Rickey,
D&C Sportswriter Craig Dade approaches wrestling as a task. In fact, the 17-year-old East High senior, who captured his second straight City-Catholic League championship last night, says he hates the sport.
"It's too rough for me," said Dade, who disposed of Charlotte's Chuck Bour to win the 115-pound weight class. "The only reason I wrestle is because my brother, Sam, was a two-time city champion for Madison four years ago. Sam was good and my parents wanted me to be like him.
"My favorite sport is basketball, although I don't play it very much. But as long as I'm wrestling, I want to be the best in my class."
Bishop Kearney, with three individual champions and two other finalists, defending it's tournament crown by totaling 84-1/2 points. East High was second with 71-1/2 points, followed by McQuaid with 70-1/2; Edison with 56; Madison with 47-1/2; Cardinal Mooney with 35; Charlotte with 32; Franklin with 28; Jefferson with 21; Monroe with 4 and Marshall with 1.
Mike Johnson of Madison was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler. Johnson edged out East High's Joe Spencer, 2-1, in the 148-pound class for the title.
"I would have liked to win the outstanding wrestler award, but it should have gone to Mike," Dade said. "That weight class probably is the toughest in the tournament. There are four or five really tough guys in it."
Dade took down Bour in the first period for a 2-0 lead. But the Charlotte junior reversed him and tied the match at 2-2. Dade, who appeared stunned, then reversed his opponent to regain a two-point lead and was credited with a predicament for a 6-2 advantage after the first period.
Another predicament gave Daed two more points in the second period. Bour was awarded one point for unsportsmanlike conduct by Dade to start off the final two minutes, but the champion came back with an escape and another predicament for an 11-3 victory.
"That was the first time I was reversed all season," Dade said. "It sort of surprised me."
The penalty point against him was planned, he said. "This morning I had to lose a pound to make weight," Dade explained, "and then this afternoon I drank a lot of liquids to regain some of my strength.
"In the second period I started to get sick. In the last period I acted like I was mad so he'd stay away from me and I'd have an easier time. It wasn't cheating, it was just smart wrestling."
Two upsets in the semi-finals didn't leave Dade apprehensive about his championship match. Bishop Kearney's Jerry Oberst was defeated by Mike Johnson of Madison, 7-6, in the 141-pound class. Dade's teammate , Fred Shellman was the vitim of a guillotine cross-body pin by Jefferson's Mike Dupra in a 180-pound match.
After being pinned, Shellman refused to shake hands with Dupra and went home. It cost East a team point for unsportsmanlike conduct and Shellman a chance to go to the Section 5 tournament as the No. 2 qualifier from the city.
"Fred's quick-tempered," Dade said. He's a good wrestler, but when good wrestlers are put on their backs, sometimes they don't know what to do.
"No one on the team holds anything against Fred because he cost the team some points. He was a big factor in us getting this far."
Dade's entering the final stages of a high school career in which he has lost four matches in 50 tries. And even he admits when he loses next, it will be his last defeat.
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