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Chamberlain Repeats As Champ

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By JEFFREY JONES, Tribune correspondent

Published: February 3, 2008

TAMPA - There wasn't much doubt going into the finals who would win the Class 2A-District 8 championship on Saturday. The only question was how early Chamberlain was going to wrap it up.

With eight wrestlers competing in the last round and a comfortable 34-point lead over second-place Wharton, the Chiefs captured their second straight district title when Chamberlain senior Jordan Pritt pinned Plant's Ben Johnson at the 3:20 mark of the 125-pound final.

The victory was especially sweet for the Chiefs, considering they were missing approximately eight starters from their early-season lineup.

"We had the battle of the injury bug in the beginning," Chiefs first-year coach Matt Logan said. "But we're pretty much as healthy as we can be now, and we're turning it on at the right time."
Sophomore D'Aaron Holt got the momentum started in the Chiefs' favor with a pin of Wharton's Dominic Cruz at 4:59 in the 103-pound finale. The victory had special meaning for Holt, not only because it was his first year of wrestling, but also for the fact that Cruz had pinned him in a match earlier in the year.

"I was very determined," Holt said. "Before the match, I put it in my head that I wasn't going to lose, that I was going to win district."

The Chiefs also won the 112-pound final, as freshman Roger Phillips pinned Plant's Fernando Ramos at 1:41 to keep the ball rolling for Chamberlain.

"I used a double-leg takedown on Ramos and then went to the head and arms for the pin," Phillips said. "I thought it was going to be a tougher match, so I came out with a lot of intensity."

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