Wendell Larson Pin

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Now Wendell has achieved that milestone reserved for only the very
rare, and i mean very rare wrestler that can come out at the whistle
with a vengence and record a pin in under a few seconds. Wendell made
this group against OTC wrestling at the heavy weight spot , and
bringing literally Charles Johnson to his back in 4 seconds, tying a
feat that was only done twice before in all Minnesota State High
school wrestling... No matter the opponent this is a feat, a rare rare
feat very few can even witness let alone come close to achieving.

I knew as i lined up my view finder on the center of the mat as the
two wrestlers sqaured off that this match would know doubt i felt go
down as a pin for Wendell as his oppenent Charles Johnson was much
younger , and in experienced. Wendell always a home crowd favorite. So
as the two men sqaured off , amongst the many echoing chants of
Wendell ,Wendell emittng from the Osakis bleachers , i thought to
myself this is a big mismatch , Wendell Looking far supierior in
strength and quickness then weighing in his experince and mat savy it
sure seemed a pin was inevietable . But i have seen many,many times
before wear the supposid underdog would look like it was a sure win
for the more superior looking athlete to have some odd unexpected
occurance happen spelling out an upset... So one can never take his
opponent lightly ,especially in wrestling where your amono ,a mono ,
and anything can happen ,in those brief minutes .... So as these two
men sqaured off i figured it would be a quick match if all went in
Wendell's favor and he came out strong and quick , but even i
underestimated his speed and power. Amongst the still echoing chants
of Wendell i lined my lens up on the two jugernants as they adjusted
and prepared for battle . The whistle blew , click ,click , i blasted
some shots ,as Wendell lunged forward like a cat chasing a gazzel at
diner time , bam in a blink he litterally reached in and picked young
Charles helplesslly up to his chest and powered him to his left and
right on his back , i thought i was watching ECW or Raw there for a
minue as a watched the shear power and speed as Wendell litterally
slammed the pin home , 4 seconds match over.... Wow i litterally
couldn't believe my eyes was it done , wow ,what did i just witness ,
the gym was silent for a second then roared as they two were taken by
the shear speed and strength of that pin. in the time it took to chew
a handful of popcorn it was all over ... I looked back at my pictures
to see if i in deed saw what i saw , and then to see if i caught it ,
because it was fast ...my camera shoots at 5 frames per second and i
got just that 5 pictures .... darn that was fast ... As i walked away
looking back as Wendells teammates circled around him hooting and
hollering cheering the pin and their champion , i realized what i had
witnessed this could be a state record pin 4 seconds ... I also
realized that in an indirect way i may have participated in the pin as
see Wendell dates Babe ,my daughter , and her and Wendell were
experiencing some dating difficulties like most teenagers and i can;t
help feel in some indirect way he took those frustrations out on poor
Charles of OTC.... But in hind sight i would proabily say no , Wendell
always comes on strong like a bull seeing the flash of red , he rages
through his opponents thats his style , and a crowd pleasing one at
that ..I have over my years seen few wreslters that can stir a crowd
up like Wendell when he gets to tossing his opponents about ,its an
awesome experience , and if you
HAVE NEVER SEEN AN OSAKIS WRESTLING MATCH I WELCOME YOU COME ON DOWN
AND GIVE HER A LOOKSY YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED the action is non stop
100% adrenaline from start to finish , sure the boys are having a
rough spell right now, and as a team are dealing with many injuries
etc , but the boys give it their all 110% every outing and have had
some really awesome battles , don;t miss them , COME BE A PART OF THIS
AWESOME EXPERIENCE BE " STREAKER FAN "

now back to the pin. Wendell had a bullseye on his back prior to the
OTC match up do to his third ranking in Minnesota state in A at 215
pounds , but now this 4 second pin will definatly add a little
insentive for his opponents to try to topple this crowd pleasing
matman. So now that he has joined that group of select few ,very few,
with his 4 second pin this bullseye will be looming even larger.. Can
he live up to the hype and mount and over come this giant and make his
way marching on to state and finish at the top of the mountain?
only time will tell ..I feel that he has all the tools and is honing
hos technique with each match ,and looks tougher and tougher each time
i watch him. I think the only thing that may hold him back is the
forfeits that other teams through his way so as not to have to wrestle
this wreslter of reckless abandon,power and speed...

His match against Charles will face some scrutiny and many opinions as
to should he have went so hard or laid back some, was this sportsman
or not...?
Wendell will face many who will say hey you did what you had to ,and
man it was awesome , then there will be those that will think hey man
he was way underexperienced and mismatched you should have held back
some , and like a football team that is winning byseveral touchdowns
and fails to put in their second stringers , he will have to deal with
all these opinions ,was it being a good /poor sport. Who knows the
true answer , for that question has many facets to it .... it is my
thought that you are on the varsity team trying to vi your way to
state ,and do the best you can fo you and your team along the way ...
so our your opponents , they are to be ready as are you to give it
all .... in wrestling its not always about winning or the fact you
will win ,its also about survival and putting up an incrediable
fight ,to learn and be ready for the next match.... there is so much
going on ,and it all happens very fast you have to be ready , you
practice and train everyday for this ..You have to be ready for any
and all opponents can beatyou at any given time...I have witnessed
this over and over , where two guys sqaure up that have wrestled
before , and the one kid dominated , only to this time over shoot or
ride to high and fall victum to a pin ,all in a blink of an
eye ,because the other kid was ready and he wasn;t there to loose
either. Wresling has a lot of pride and sheer raw determination and
will power like know other sport... So for me i felt Wendell wrestled
his match as he does all his matches , hard and relentless right from
the get go , and i think his goal is to pin every opponent in under a
few seconds , so it came to little suprise that he finally got one at
4 seconds. I do not think he was acting in an unsportsmanship manner ,
at all that is his style ,and Charles just wasn;t prepared for that
sheer rush ,speed and power of Wendell ... Charles is young and will
in time learn and anticipate and prepare himself for these quick moves
and in time he too will record hi share of victories and pins and i
look forward to the rematch if there is one . I ma not sure if we face
off against OTC again but i am sure that Charles will be much more
ready next time and i am sure Wendell will come out the same way
again ....

So you see i think Wendell could have held back some , but heck this
is wrestling and these guys get surprised all the time and you really
can;t ease back to much ,even the great wrestlers won;t 9 times out of
10 .... SO you be the judge -
what do you think was it right or wrong to go so hard and not hold
back against a very mismatched or supposidly mismatched opponent ?

with wrestling even a supposidly looking mismatched opponent can
surprise you and you never really know how good they are or what they
are capable of doing until you sqaure off against them , so for me i
think it was the right way to go , who knows how good the opponent
is , you have to go at them as though they are the best you have faced
to date and only when the final whistle blows and your arm is raised
or not will you truly no how good they were or you were for that
matter ...

Anythoughts ?

anyhow this is my take on it
THATS MY PENNIES WORTH