“(Elor’s) obsessed. He’s got high goals for himself. That’s part of being successful. But he puts the work in. He does it year round. He finds places to work out, drives to Boise to the Olympic training center to practice. He really just loves it.” College Park coach Jim Keck who works out with Halvorson at the Community Youth Center in Concord. “He trains really hard. He’s a good kid and a hard worker. He’s very coachable; always trying to get better. You don’t find too many big kids with the desire to get better that he has. He could easily have been a successful football player.” And he nearly was. “When I was a freshman if you had asked me what I knew about wrestling I would have told you it was guys in masks and tights with folding chairs,” Elor said. “I didn’t know anything about it. But this guy at my school kept telling me, ‘Coach wants to meet you. Just come and check it out.’ I kept finding ways to kind of blow him off. I’d say, ‘Maybe.’ Eventually he said, ‘It will make you better at football,’ and then I was interested.” Ironically, wrestling ended up supplanting, rather than supplementing, Elor’s football career. “I tried (football) as a freshman and a sophomore,” he said. “But my sophomore year I realized I wasn’t really getting a grasp. … I didn’t grow up paying any attention to football. I played soccer, basketball, Australian-rules football. … My parents are first-generation (U.S. citizens). All of my family is in Israel.” But he stuck it out in the mat room, and has quickly risen into the upper echelon in the section, state, and country. “He’s amazing,” said thecaliforniawrestler.com editor Al Fontes. “He’s a two-time national champion and a three-time all American. He’s a top-15 guy in the country, maybe higher.” Elor already is a three-time High School All-American. He won a Greco-Roman cadet title in 2009 as the nation’s top 16year old before last year’s junior title. After placing sixth in the NCS as a sophomore in 2009 (just his second year of competition) he racked up two pins and a technical fall victory at NCS in 2010. He nipped rival Dylan Wynn of De La Salle 2-1 in the semifinal and topped second-seeded Kalafitoni Pole of James Logan 5-4 in the final. Elor identifies Wynn, who placed third at NCS last year, as his primary competition in the section again this year. “He lost a close match to me last year,” Elor said of Wynn. “I know if I don’t give it my all against him, I might lose.” Elor knows that the target is firmly on his back at NCS on Feb. 25-26 at Newark Memorial. “Everyone is going to step on the mat trying to beat me,” he said. “I’m going to go out there to send a message to everyone — including myself — that I really am this good.”
wrestle for Ohio State University, a traditional Big 10 wrestling powerhouse. “I want to make (the coaches at Ohio State) feel they made the right choice picking me over any of the other guys they could have recruited,” Elor said. Though he still feels a bit envious of the attention garnered by the football players he has a clear plan for himself. “I want to get an education,” he said. “Anything can happen in wrestling. Academics are important. You have to have something to fall back on.” Beyond that? “My end goal is to win a world championship or an Olympic medal,” he said. Keck said that Elor’s willingness and ability to set lofty but attainable goals has been one of the prime motivating factors in his rapid rise. “He’s obsessed,” Keck said. “He’s got high goals for himself. That’s part of being successful. But he puts the work in. He does it year round. He finds places to work out, drives to Boise to the Olympic training center to practice. He really just loves it. He’s confident and hard-working and goes the extra mile. He’s a student of the sport.” For all the lofty aspirations and accolades, Elor is still a little bit stunned by his success on the mat. “It’s a miracle I’ve made it this far,” he said. “All this is coming so fast; I’m just trying to keep up.” ✪
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED Elor may not have his CIF belt yet, but he continued to blaze his path toward Bakersfield with a title at the prestigious Mission San Jose Invitational on Feb. 4-5 in Fremont. Following are the top five team scores, and the results of each championship match. Some teams are abbreviated after first reference, Top teams: Clovis 259, De La Salle 209, Clovis West 139, Liberty-Brentwood 121.5, Madera South 94. Finals matches 103 — Isaiah Locsin (Live Oak) d. Troy Lakin (Clayton Valley-Concord) 18-7 112 — Joe Ramirez (De La Salle-Concord) d. Andres Torres (Windsor) 8-6 119 — Daniel Gaytan (Clovis) d. Javier Gasca (CentralFresno) 6-4 125 — Joey Moita (DLS) d. Matt Gay (Clovis) 9-6 130 — Brian Sergi (Coll. Park) d. Juan Salas (Clovis) 3-2 135 — Drew Smith (Damonte Ranch-Reno (NV.)) d. Josue Hernandez (Madera South) 8-3 140 — Joey Lavallee (Reno) d. Kenny Nez (DR) DQ 145 — Jesse Baldazo (Liberty) d. Jonathan Gomez (MS) 8-5 152 — Victor Pereira (Newark Memorial-Newark) d. Blake Thompson 5-2 160 — Curtis Siegfried (DLS) d. Adrian Salas (Clovis) 3-2 171 — Nikko Reyes (Clovis West) d. Zach Nevills (Clovis) 8-3 189 — Luke Sheridan (DLS) d. Dakota Gordon (Clovis) 3-1 215 — Scott Brasil (Mt. Pleasant-San Jose) p. Griffith Gates (Foothill-Pleasanton) 1:17 285 — Orry Elor (CP) d. Jumoke Hunter (CW) 6-1
Future Looks Bright Elor says that he feels a certain amount of pressure to live up to the high standards set by his family. Orry is hardly the only accomplished athlete in the Elor clan. His sister, Ronny, won a women’s freestyle national championship in 2010 at 220 pounds as a senior after placing second at 220 as a junior. His father, Yair, was a world-class shot-putter at Boise State University from 1980-84. Another bit of pressure came this year when Elor said his family labored over finding “the right college for me,” and that the process of coming to that decision has had “a big impact on the season.” After some deliberation, Elor accepted a scholarship to Support Your Local Business • Say You Found Them In SportStars™
February 10, 2011
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