Lee takes down
another champion
Chalk up another major collegiate wrestling victory for 2001 Saint Louis School alumnus Travis Lee of Honolulu.
Lee, a two-time All-American at Cornell University in New York, defeated two-time NCAA 133-pound champion Johnny Thompson of Oklahoma State 5-2 in the Cliff Keen National Duals meet Saturday in Cleveland, Ohio.
"Travis completely dominated," Cornell coach Rob Koll said yesterday. "He made sure he capitalized on his opportunities and Thompson never threatened."
Lee, who was the NCAA's unbeaten 125-pound champion last season, improved to 22-1 this season at 133 pounds -- a weight he has grown in to through added muscle.
He is 56-1 the last two years.
"I controlled the match pretty well," Lee said.
After a scoreless first round and 2-2 tie in the second round, Lee chose the down position at the start or the third round and escaped for a 3-2 lead. He added two points on a takedown in the final seconds of the match.
Thompson had won 10 of his last 11 matches and 125 in his career before meeting Lee. So shaken was he by his loss to Lee that he also lost his next match and is now 16-5 for the season.
Going into the match, Lee was ranked No. 1 by Amateur Wrestling News and W.I.N. magazine and No. 2 by InterMat Wrestle.com.
Football All-Americans: 1998 Radford graduate Bingham Tuisamatatele was chosen first-team linebacker and 2001 Saint Louis graduate Enoch McKeague received honorable mention as a defensive back on the Football Gazette NAIA All-America team announced Sunday.
Tuisamatatele is a senior at Lambuth University in Tennessee and McKeague is a junior at University of Montana-Western, where he plays for coach Tommy Lee, brother of UH assistant coaches Cal and Ron Lee. McKeague is among 10 players from Hawaii at Montana Western.
Basketball hot shot: Sophomore guard Branden Kawazoe (Waiakea '02) enjoyed a career night Saturday for Pacific (Oregon). Kawazoe scored a game-high 24 points, making six of eight 3-point attempts, as Pacific buried Multnomah 103-39.
Kawazoe has put in 45.5 percent of his 3-point attempts this season and averaged 9.9 points per game.
The Hawaii Grown Report also runs Sundays in the Star-Bulletin.
