THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997             TAG: 9702160266
SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C13  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   46 lines

COX WINS BEACH BATTLE, TALLWOOD HAS 11 IN REGION

Yes, Ocean Lakes' R.J. Davis discovered Saturday, you can go home again.

Davis, a two-time Beach District champion for the Dolphins, made it three in a row while wearing Cox colors and led the Falcons to their ninth district tournament title Saturday at Ocean Lakes.

The Falcons, who won for the second time in three years, racked up 264 points and had six individual champions.

Defending champion Tallwood took second with 232 points and four champs. But the Lions won the survive-and-advance battle as they sent a tournament-high 11 wrestlers to the Eastern Region tournament beginning Thursday at Churchland - one more than Cox.

The top four finishers in each weight class advance to regionals.

Davis, who transferred to Cox last summer, was greeted warmly by his former fans before and after his tough 2-0 victory over First Colonial's Jeff Bernd at 135.

``I felt pretty comfortable wrestling in this place,'' Davis said.

Unbeaten freshman Jeremy Ingram (103), Brad Pond (112), undefeated Pierre Pryor (140), Mohammed Youssofi (171) and Steve Mings (275) were the other Falcons to win weight classes.

Tallwood's four winners included Nathan Story (145) and Lawrence Chambers (215), the only champions that didn't go into the tournament with a No. 1 seed.

Story stayed on the offensive to outduel returning champion Jeff Kramer of Cox at 145. Chambers, pinned by Cox's David Walker during the regular season, avenged that loss with a 5-4 decision.

``I was up 6-3 when he pinned me before,'' Chambers said. ``I knew he'd remember I was up 6-3 and that I could take him and beat him. I proved that tonight.''

A pair of defending champions also came up big for the Lions. At 160, Joe Kerr outlasted Princess Anne's Justin Fentress, and at 152, Andre Kemp outscored Kempsville's Shawn Lemke.

Returning state champion First Colonial's Jason Bernd looked to be in top form throughout a 5:36 technical fall victory at 125 over Ocean Lakes' Josh Haskell.

Another Patriot, Tom Juskevich, retained his 189-pound crown by fall over Tallwood's Joe Monaghan.

In other finals, Kellam's Jason Boswell won his second straight at 130 and Princess Anne's David Sutton prevailed at 119.