Orland grappler top dog in Sacto

Orland High wrestler Nathan Monck does not give in on the wrestling mats, but he's certainly been able to get other grapplers to do so recently.

Monck, a senior at Orland who claimed the CIF Northern Section Masters championship at 121 pounds in 2009, brought home a first-place finish from the Grappling X tournament held in Sacramento Aug. 29.

It was just the second submission-wrestling tournament Monck has entered, after just a year of training with Team Orsua in Orland.

In submission wrestling, a grappler attempts to place holds on his opponent that could potentially choke him or cause injury to a joint or other body part. When a grappler finds himself in such a predicament, he is expected to either submit verbally or by "tapping out" by tapping his opponent.

"I like it because it makes me better for wrestling," Monck said of the sport. "There's a lot of things that carry over to wrestling."

He also copped to enjoying the parts of the sport that are strictly forbidden in high school wrestling, such as chokes and arm-bars.

Monck took on three competitors in the Advanced High School age group, where he went undefeated for the championship. He then bumped up to the Intermediate Adult age group, where he dominated one match 21-0.

Then came the finals match.

"The referee in the match made a bad call," insisted coach John Orsua. "He thought Nathan had tapped out."

"I posted my hand to counter an arm-bar," Monck explained of the controversial moment, "and when I re-posted my hand they said I tapped out."

Monck's opponent was a purple belt representing the famed Gracie fight team, and Monck was leading 3-0 at the point of the stoppage.

"Video of the match was presented to the higher officials, and we later received a massive apology letter for the mistake," Orsua added.