Life Imitates Art--or Animation--for Ventura’s Wrestling Brothers

Brothers Dustin and Trevor Clocherty of the Ventura High wrestling team answer to a pair of, well, animated nicknames.

Dustin goes by “Gumby,” Trevor answers to “Pokey.”

“Dustin is Gumby because you can tie him up in a knot and it doesn’t hurt him,” Ventura Coach Paul Clementi said. “The things people do to him on a mat that would have other people screaming, he’s laughing at them.

“Trevor is Pokey because he never gets started until the second period.”

The Clochertys wrestled up to their billing in last weekend’s Channel League finals at Ventura.

Dustin (119 pounds) writhed his way through a tough match against Casey Shannon of Dos Pueblos before pinning his opponent in 2 minutes 15 seconds. Trevor (125) never quite got going, falling behind, 10-0, to Dos Pueblos’ Kevin Prusinski before being pinned in 4:17.

Dustin’s secret? “I’m double-jointed,” he said.

Heating up: Based on national rankings, the Cal State Northridge baseball team wasn’t given a snowball’s chance in Austin, Texas, to beat the Longhorns on their home turf before a crowd of nearly 4,000 last weekend. Texas was ranked No. 12 in both polls and Northridge had nary a mention, even in the “others” list.

But the Matadors braved sub-freezing temperatures to take two of three games and improve to 5-1.

How cold was it? Snow had to be scraped from the field before Saturday’s 8-3 Matador victory.

Conditions improved slightly Sunday, and Northridge stayed hot, beating the Longhorns, 8-6, before falling, 12-8, in the second game of a doubleheader.

In the three games, Northridge hit nine doubles, two triples and a home run. Starters Robert Crabtree (3-0), who went eight innings in the first game, and Erasmo Ramirez (2-0), who went 6 1/3 in the second, earned the victories.

Greensleeves: For the Royal High boys’ soccer team, green is not only the color of money, it’s the only color the Highlanders will be wearing the rest of the season.

The defending Southern Section Division I champions could play until early March, but after four of their new white uniforms were stolen at Agoura in December and another was stolen from forward Jesse Garner’s car last week, Coach Kevin Corley didn’t have enough uniforms to dress his 22 players in anything but green.

“We’d never be able to order replacements quick enough, so our athletic director [Terry Dobbins] will call each team before they play us and tell them we only have one color to wear,” Corley said. “I told the kids to guard the green ones with their lives.”

Stats

The Royal High boys’ soccer team, 19-5-2 and 10-1-1 in Marmonte League play, has set a school record with 49 goals in league play. The previous record was 40.

Pepperdine junior Lisa Siders, a 6-foot-4 center, has recorded a double-double in four of the Waves’ last five basketball games, including 26 points and 10 rebounds Saturday in an 81-69 victory over host Gonzaga. Siders has averaged 21.8 points and nine rebounds during that span for Pepperdine (10-10 overall, 3-5 in West Coast Conference play).

Quotebook

“We’ve been having our ups and downs all year and we can’t solve the problem. It can’t be playing on the road, because it happens at home too.”

-- Cal State Northridge center Tom Samson, trying to explain how the basketball team seems to follow every good game with a bad one.

Things to Do

The Pepperdine baseball team will play Cal State Fullerton, the top-ranked team in both the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls, at home today at 2 p.m.

Contributing: Jeff Fletcher, Irene Garcia, Steve Henson, Vince Kowalick, Tris Wykes.