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Marine Wrestlers Defeat Army in Close Combat
Story and photos by Army Sgt. Kap Kim 
FORT HOOD, Texas. Marine Corps Master Sgt. Greg Gibson, of Quantico, Va., narrowly beat Army Pfc. Paul Devlin, of Fort Carson, Colo., 2-1 in the 130 Kg class, to give the Marines the overall Greco-Roman victory during the first day of competition Saturday at the 2001 Armed Forces Wrestling Championships held at Fort Hood, Texas. Heading into the last dual, last match of the day between Gibson and Devlin, the Marine Corps and Army were tied 4-4; however, even closer though was the individual scoring. The Marine Corps was up by a mere four points - a score that could’ve been easily attain within the six combined minutes of wrestling. Both fought tough, but Gibson’s power proved to be too much. "Up until the last match, we thought we could have it, " said Army Staff Sgt. Shon Lewis, the All-Army Wrestling coach. "We were counting on our heavyweight to win it for us, but he just ran out of gas." According to the All-Marine Wrestling coach, Jon Antonelli, Gibson’s victory was simply "amazing." 
"A 47-year-old man beating a young kid like that...that’s just amazing," Antonelli said. "His winning was great; the team victory was just icing on the cake." The Marine camp predicted the win over the Army’s fairly new and inexperienced team. "We expected to win this, and it was awesome; it was a couple of years in the making," said Marine Corps Joseph Clark, of Quantico, Va., "We knew the Army had a new [Greco] team, but even though they had a new team, they were still pretty good.". In all, there were three duals throughout the day. In the first dual, Army crushed the Navy, 30-2; the Marine Corps beat Air Force, 27-14. In the second dual, Army beat the Air Force 17-14; the Marine Corps beat Navy 28-5. In the last dual, the Air Force beat the Navy, 27-5, and the Marine Corps beat the Army 18-13. Overall, the Marine Corps Greco-Roman team won it all with their six points, the Army was the runner-up with four, the Air Force had two, and Navy were shutout with zero. Heading into the second day of competition, Lewis predicts that Army will go recapture gold for the team as they have almost every year since 1989. "We’re only like one point behind [the Marines]," Lewis said confidently. "We’ll make that up in Freestyle." Antonelli admitted that his team might have quite a day ahead of them tomorrow in the Freestyle competition, but said he feels confident that the Marines will pull through as they did in today’s battle. Though Navy had a poor showing in the Greco-Roman wrestling, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Marcos A. Jeantete, of San Diego Naval Station, Calif., said his team did not do too badly considering their youth. "It went all right," he said. "Of course, I wish it had gone a little better, but you can’t win them all. Our team showed a lot of heart." Gold and silver medals were handed out to the top two finishers of each weight category. Individually, the Air Force and Marine Corps tied with three gold-medal winners, and the Army had two. The Marine Corps took the most silver medals with four, Army had three, and the Air Force had one. The Air Force and Army tied with three bronze medals, and the Navy had two. Senior Airman Jeff Cervone, of Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., took home the gold in the 54 Kg weight class, and Spc. Michel Santos, of Fort Carson, Colo., won the silver. Marine Corps Sgt. Duaine Martin, of Iwakuni, Japan, won gold in the 58 Kg weight class, and Spc. Erin Kowal, of Fort Bragg, N.C., took silver. In the 63 Kg class, Marine Corps Sgt. James Shillow, of Camp Lejeune, N.C., took the gold, and Senior Airman Jacob Hey, of Schriever AFB, Colo., took silver. Marine Corps Sgt. Marcel Cooper, of Quantico, Va., took gold for the 69 Kg, and Army Pfc. Oscar Wood, of Fort Carson, won silver. Army Sgt. Keith Seiracki, of Fort Carson, Colo., won gold in the 76 Kg class, and Lance Cpl. Jacob Clark, of Quantico, Va., won silver. Senior Aaron Sieracki, of Peterson AFB, Colo., won gold in the 85 Kg class, and Marine Corps Cpl. Kenneth Owens, of Quantico, Va., won silver. Army Sgt. Dominique Black, of Fort Carson, Colo., won in the 97 Kg class, and Marine Corps Sgt. Tipton Peterson, of 29 Palms, Calif., won silver. Senior Airman Corey Farkas, of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo., won the gold for the Heavyweight class (130 Kg), and Gibson on the silver. |