Cameron ButtsWrestling
Nile C. Kinnick, Japan
Last week: Earned Outstanding Wrestler honors and captured the 135-pound championship in Saturday’s Nile C. Kinnick Invitational "Beast of the Far East" Tournament at Yokosuka Middle School. He’s won OW honors in his last two Pacific-wide tournaments.
Butts, a senior who transferred from from Jacksonville, Fla., last year, pinned Kadena’s Jacob Bishop in 2:55 in the quarterfinals, pinned Devin Day of Yokota in 2:23 in the semifinals and capped his title run by pinning Joey Buccilli of St. Mary’s International in 1:21.
"He’s a mild-mannered kid off the mat. But on the mat, he’s a lion," Kinnick coach and athletics director Nico Hindie said.
YeJeen NamWrestling
Osan American, South Korea
Last week: Styles, a 5-foot-1 sophomore guard, flashed her All-Europe skills at Wiesbaden on Saturday. Fouled driving the lane with 4.2 seconds to play and her defending European Division III champion Lady Bucs trailing 51-50, Styles sank both free throws to lift unbeaten Baumholder over its Division II host 52-51.
Became only the second female wrestler to win a regular-season bout in a DODDS-Korea Wrestling League dual meet, joining former Cougar Emily Albonetti, now an Osan assistant coach.
Nam, a junior 101-pounder in her first year of wrestling, pinned Kortney Martin of Seoul American in 2 minutes, 20 seconds, getting her first victory in six tries thus far in three regular-season tri-meets. Seoul American edged Osan 34-30 to win the dual meet at Seoul’s Falcon Gym.
"YeJeen is the total package of determination, hard work and just desire to do her best," coach David Hemmer said. "She came out [for wrestling] at ground zero, [but] my feeling is the sky is the limit with this gal."
— Selected by Stars and Stripes staff
