Mad Dawg wrestlers compete at freestyle state

A young group of Mad Dawg wrestlers recently made the trip down to Fresno for freestyle state and most came back with state medals. It was a great weekend for a pair of "Jordans." Jordan Yi-Berg got the coveted "Papa Bear" trophy for taking first place in the Cadet Division for Greco-Roman State at 94 pounds. Yi-Berg has earned many bears prior to this weekend, but they had all been for second and third place at previous youth state tournaments. This time, he dominated his way to a state championship with two 8-0 first-round technical falls on Saturday. On top of that, he challenged himself even more by going up a weight and age division, wrestling in the junior greco bracket at 100 pounds. Despite giving up noticeable size and strength, Yi-Berg battled back from an opening round loss to come back and take third place to add another bear trophy to his collection. The other "Jordan", Denny, who is the current head wrestling coach at Sutter Middle School and assistant coach of all of our other wrestling programs, competed in the Open Division at 92 kg for Greco-Roman on Saturday and Freestyle on Sunday. Coach Denny won his first two matches by fall in Greco to reach the finals before dropping his last match to finish in second place. In the larger freestyle bracket Sunday, Denny went 3-2 with a pin and two technical falls to take seventh place in California for his age and weight division. Besides the two Jordans, eight more youth wrestlers placed for Mad Dawg and brought home state medals (fourth-eighth place) and bear trophies (first-third place) for their efforts. Several Mad Dawg wrestlers were competing at freestyle state for the first time, and two of those wrestlers came back with their first-ever bear trophy by finishing in the top-three for their respective weight class and division. Suliman Abdullah reached the finals in the bantam (8 and under) division at 53 pounds. Abdullah finished in second place. Elle Collier took home the third place trophy in her first freestyle state appearance in the 10u intermediate division at 73 pounds. Other state medalists for Mad Dawg included Avram Melanesian (fifth place at Bantam 62), Modasir Kamal (sixth place at Novice 74), Clay Collier (seventh at Bantam 70), Lucas Collier (seventh place at Schoolboy 75), Kai Lim (seventh place at Novice 75), and Yousef Abdullah (eighth place at Intermediate 105). Also competing for Mad Dawg and falling just shy of getting on the podium for placing in the top-eight were Bradley Burdine (Schoolboy 120), Carlos Garcia (Novice 78), Leni Garcia (110 Schoolgirl), Qasim Komal (Novice 74), and Lucas Petrosian (Bantam 53).