
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994                    TAG: 9406120258 
SECTION: SPORTS                     PAGE: C10    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940612                                 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH

AT HEAVIER WEIGHT, SALEM'S REYES STILL LOOKS TOUGH

{LEAD} Watching Salem's Chip Reyes wrestle is a lot easier now than it was a few months ago. These days, there's a lot more of him to see.

Reyes, a rising senior who captured his state title at 103 pounds last February, was 20 pounds heavier when he checked in for Saturday's Virginia State Games wrestling competition at the Little Creek Amphibious Base's Rockwell Hall.

{REST} Such weight gain is hardly unusual during the off-season, when the wrestlers don't have the daily, intense workouts of the high school campaign.

Unfortunately for Sun Devil teammate Ramon Copeland, however, Reyes carries his extra weight well. Copeland, Salem's regular 125-pounder, dropped an 11-6 decision to the beefed-up Reyes.

``I don't think it really affected him much,'' Copeland said.

Nearly 260 wrestlers, ranging in age from 6-50, went at each other in one of several folkstyle divisions on six mats in the cavernous Hall, which also housed the boxing and tae kwon do competitions.

``One of the good things about this is that we don't just have a lot of guys from this area,'' said event organizer Jack Harcourt. ``The numbers are spread out pretty evenly from across the state. A lot of people are seeing guys they've never seen before.''

Other Group AAA state champions on hand included rising seniors Brian Wilson of Cox and Jeremy Ferry of Centreville and Western Branch graduate Chris Viola, who will wrestle at the University of Michigan in the fall.

Chad McPhatter, a former state champion at Cox who now wrestles for Liberty University, also wrestled Saturday.

Freestyle wrestling will take place today beginning at 9 a.m. More than 200 wrestlers have signed up.

by CNB