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By Tony Gonsalez, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated:12/10/2006 02:35:50 AM PST

SAN LEANDRO — The San Leandro High girls wrestling team was determined to improve on its second-place, 98-point finish at last year's Roger Briones Invitational.
The host Pirates did just that, winning the team title Saturday with 179 points in the annual tournament at San Leandro High.

"This was a big improvement for our team from last year." San Leandro coach Joe Rose said. "I was very pleased with our performance."

The Pirates pulled away from Vallejo by winning two of the final four championship matches. They also had one other champion. Vallejo, which won the tournament last year, came in second with 141 points, squeaking by third-place Hogan (138.5).

Vallejo had three girls advance to the finals and took home two titles.

"We had some girls that really stepped it up today," Rose said. "The younger ones are learning from their mistakes out there."

Deeanie Panganeren (98), Rachel Whyte (154) and Lulu Morrar (189) won their respective weight classes for San Leandro. The Pirates also had three wrestlers lose in championship matches.

In all, San Leandro had eight girls finish in the top four in their division.

In the first championship match of the day, Panganeran defeated freshman Jessica Feeney of Castro Valley to set the tone for San Leandro. The championship was her second in a row at this tournament.

Tiffany Villareal (132) battled through a couple of injuries before falling to Kristina Games of Hogan in the

finals. Elizabeth Saucedo and Stevie Ratto (165) also took home second-place medals.
Jenny Ho (108) and Shawnita Beck rounded out the top finishers for San Leandro, both coming in fourth.

Castro Valley had four girls placed in the top four. In the 138-pound class, Chelsea Grasseschi defeated Waterford's Crystal Zapata to capture the lone title for the Trojans. Garbielle Solis, last year's winner at 103 pounds, beat Karla Avelino for third place in 118 pounds.

According to Castro Valley coach Steve Solis, he expects big things from his young squad.

"I'm encouraged because we have a handful of girls that have never wrestled before," he said. "As the season goes on they will get better and better."

Arroyo's Stephanie Johnson took fourth in 126 pounds.

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Cheema to lead Indian wrestling challenge

Doha, Dec 8:

Palwinder Singh Cheema will spearhead the Indian wrestling challenge at the 15th Asian Games with a pruned down squad of eight men and four women.

After much confusion over the clearance accorded to the wrestlers, the final list has seven freestyle competitors, one in Greco-Roman and four women.

Cheema, 26, a medallist at three of the last four Asian Championships, will compete in the 120 kg category and, with a little luck in the draw, should come out with a medal.

Apart from Palwinder, India's other challengers in freestyle wrestling include Vinod Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sushil Kumar, Narsingh Yadav, Anuj Kumar and Narender.

India's lone challenger in Greco-Roman will be Ravinder Singh in the 60kg category. Ravinder was sixth at the 2006 Asian Championships in Wuhan, fourth at the 2003 Asians and fifth in the 2005 Asian meet.

In the women's event, India has Alka Tomar, the country's first ever medallist at the World Championships, where she won a bronze in 59kg. The other three women are Geetika Jakhar, Neha and Sonika.

The Central Asian countries -- Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan -- are expected to hold sway in the men's event, and Japan are tipped to dominate the women's competition.

The men's freestyle and Greco-Roman categories each have seven gold medals at stake, while women's freestyle has four golds on offer as opposed to seven at the World Championships.

Japan have brought to Doha three of their five world champions from the 2006 World Championships in Guangzhou, China. Their fourth team member, Kyoko Hamaguchi, was a silver medallist at the same event. (Agencies)
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