WIESBADEN, Germany - The Patch Panthers crowned four individual champions Saturday at the 2012 DODDS-Europe high school wrestling championships en route to their fourth straight Division I team title.

Three of the Patch champs, 120-pounder Isaac McIlvene, 170-pounder Calen Fields and 182-pounder Robert Mannier, completed undefeated seasons by prevailing in their title bouts. The other, 113-pound king Ross Wilson, the 2011 champ at 103, completed his season 20-1.

It was the third straight unbeaten season for Fields, who won at 160 last year and at 145 in 2010. Fields, 19-0 this season, put on a clinic before pinning Matt Sharpy of Ramstein at the 4 minute, 55 second mark of their title bout. The fall came after Fields took Sharpy down for the sixth time, the last time into a pinning combination that ended the match.

Fields and Wilson were two of seven 2011 champs to win again this season. The others were 126-pounder Dane Robbins of Bitburg, 132-pounder Matt Lengyel of SHAPE, 138-pounder Austin Morrow and 145-pounder Adam Carroll of Lakenheath, and 160-pounder Jimmie McBride of Heidelberg.

Fields was one of four wrestling-room success stories on Saturday. His practice partner, 182-pound king Mannier, took Bitburg’s Bryson Randall down 10 times en route to a 20-8 major decision to join his partner as an unbeaten champion.

“I like the neutral position,” he said after allowing Randall to escape after all but the last takedown. “I haven’t been taken down all year.”

Lakenheath wrestling-room partners Morrow and Carroll matched Fields and Mannier in wrapping up unbeaten seasons. Morrow posted a technical fall over Ramstein’s Bryan Caldwell in the 138 final, and Carroll wrapped up his third straight title with an 8-1 verdict over Patch’s Thomas Trevino, a silver medalist for the second straight year.

Both Morrow and Carroll, who displayed a punishing ride against Trevino, discovered new resolve in their finals opponents.

“I pinned him last time we wrestled,” Morrow said of Caldwell. “He really battled back.”

Said Carroll of Trevino, “He’s definitely improved. I pinned him last time.”

Heidelberg crowned three champs Saturday – McBride and his wrestling-room partner Daniel LeJeune, who won at 152, and 195-pound king Alex Grant.

Although LeJeune and McBride uncorked punishing rides in winning their finales, McBride said that was as far as their similarities ran.

“We’re actually opposites,” McBride said after he edged Vicenza’s Aaron Hogg 5-3 at 160. “I’m more of a defensive wrestler, and he’s more offensive. He improves my offense in practice, and I improve his defense.”

LeJeune, who finished 23-0, exploited his defensive lessons in his 6-0 victory over Devon Parrish of Lakenheath.

“I’m not good at the neutral position,” he said, “so when I got him down I just tried to maintain.”

Wilson won his second straight title at the expense of his practice partner, John Kellett-Forsyth.

“I was trying for the fall,” he said about his 13-3 verdict over his teammate, “but he’s too good. I can’t stick him.”

Wilson saw nothing old hat about wrestling a teammate in the final.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It means he’s doing great.”

The tournament’s most satisfying victories must have come at 126 and 132, where Bitburg’s Dane Robbins and SHAPE’s Matt Lengyel repeated as individual champs against 2011 gold-medalists Adam Franz of Ramstein and Nikolas Weiser of Aviano, respectively.

Robbins used a move he calls “thread-the-needle” to deck Franz in 3:26 to emulate a second-period fall he inflicted on Franz earlier this season; Lengyel, voted the tournament’s outstanding wrestler, rode Weiser for most of the match in prevailing 5-1.

“If it’s a close match, I’ll try to ride,” said Lengyel, who seemed to have a counter ready for every move Weiser tried. “I like to react.”

The other 2011 champ who had to settle for silver this time around was 285-pounder Noah Hartley of Vilseck. For the second time in as many days, he fell victim to a third-period flurry by AFNORTH’s Tony Legare. Legare rode two third-period takedowns to a 7-3 pool victory over Hartley on Friday, then ended a title match which he led just 1-0 after two periods with a takedown to a fall 34 seconds before the match was to end.

“It’s my cardio conditioning,” said the Canadian, unbeaten this season, about his late-match activity. “I pride myself on my cardio.”

Hanging in at the end were K-town 106-pound champ Matt Fischer, who saw his 8-4 lead reduced to 8-6 at the buzzer when Baumholder’s Blake Brittain reversed him and had him on his back as the horn sounded, and Heidelberg’s Grant, who had to endure a post-match re-computation of the score sheet before being declared the winner.

“He had me on my back,” said Fischer, a sophomore who’ll be at Kaiserslautern until he graduates. “I won’t be on my back again.”

Grant, who prevailed 7-5 over Patch’s Albert Suarez in a 195-pound finale that saw all 12 points registered in the final stanza, broke through with a takedown with 1:32 to go and battled from there.

“Once I got the two points,” he said, “I tried to keep him down.”

Bitburg’s 220-pound king, Austin Schmidt, who finished his season 25-0, came up with another method for keeping his opponent down. He pinned William Heiges of Wiesbaden for the third time this season, this time 59 seconds into the match.

His victory helped Bitburg dethrone two-time defending D-II champ Baumholder. Rota prevailed in Division II.

bryanr@estripes.osd.mil

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