U.S. Olympic Festival : Fullerton’s Nicholson Wins on Pin

Larry Nicholson of Fullerton had Wednesday’s only pin in freestyle wrestling, stopping fourth-seeded Paul Wiederman at 2:18 in their 105 1/2-pound match in the U.S. Olympic Festival at North Carolina Central University’s Walker Center.

At 114 1/2 pounds, Jeffrey Henderson defeated fourth-seeded Jack Cuvo, 4-3, and Charlie Heard stopped third-seeded Ken Chertow, 5-4, in their 125 1/2-pound match.

Third-seeded John Smith, his hand bandaged to protect broken bones and his ribs taped to support torn cartilage, ran his winning streak to 52 and advanced to the freestyle finals. Smith, seeded fourth and wrestling in the 136 1/2-pound class, defeated second-seeded Glenn Goodman, 8-3 and 4-3.

On Wednesday, the lower-seeded freestyle wrestlers met second-seeded competitors, who were wrestling their first match of the festival. Smith’s victory was one of three by fourth- and third-seeded wrestlers.

Third-seeded Kenny Monday downed second-seeded Nate Carr, 5-2, in the 163-pound class, and fourth-seeded Rico Chiapparelli was a 3-1 victor over Melvin Douglas in the 180 1/2-pound division. Chiapparelli has won two of three meetings with Douglas.

In swimming events, held in Koury Natatorium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chad Hundeby of Irvine helped East A to a fourth-place finish in the men’s 800-meter relay, and Brian Tester of Fullerton helped West B to a fifth-place finish. North A won the race with a time of 7 minutes, 42.66 seconds. Hundeby’s team finished in 7:56.74 and Tester’s team was clocked in 8:03.70.

Mission Viejo’s Melissa Skinner was a member of the West B team that finished eighth in the 400 freestyle relay.

The event was won by the North A team, led by Sarah Anderson of Moreno Valley, Calif., in a time of 3:56.21.

Chas Morton, 16, of Franklin, Tenn., won the men’s 400-meter individual medley in a career-best of 4:29.21, only .06 of a second off the festival record of 4:29.15, set by Roger Van Jouanne in 1982.