Sunday, January 13, 2008
Vikings dominate field
Northside claims four individual champions and is the top dog at the Highlander Invitational.
The gym was packed at Glenvar High School on Saturday night for the finals of the Highlander Invitational wrestling tournament. Fans crammed in so tight the entire place felt like a sauna. But the Northside Vikings had plenty of reason to be cool and calm. They had already wrapped up the team championships before the finals even began.
Northside outdistanced their opponents by sending seven wrestlers to the finals, eventually taking home four individual championships.
"Our team was able to relax a little more and therefore I thought we wrestled better ... in that 'lets have fun attitude' instead of worrying about ... needing every point to win," Northside coach Mark Agner said.
"We wrestled well because of that."
The 119-pound finals featured wrestlers who each finished second at last year's state championships. Northside's Cameron Hurd was the Group AA runner-up at 112-pounds while Radford's William Saunders did the same in Group A.
After Saunders scored the first takedown on Saturday, the match belonged to Hurd as he went on a 13-0 run to pick up the 13-2 major decision.
Aside from knocking off a state finalist, Hurd also became the winningest wrestler in Northside history.
"Last year, we had a wrestler break the record for most career wins at Northside and I went ahead of him in this tournament. I have 122 [wins] now ... so this was a big tournament for me." Hurd said.
Radford had another rough outing in the 130-pound finals as Cave Spring sophomore Andrew Benitez defeated Tanner Sutphin, the Bobcats' defending state champ.
A questionable push-out call against Sutphin in the first period gave Benitez a penalty point that proved to be crucial as Benitez needed overtime to seal the victory. When asked if it was the correct call, Benitez jokingly replied, "It was the right call for me."
Team scores
1. Northside 225.5, 2. Cave Spring 169, 3. Glenvar 140, 4. Rural Retreat 139, 5. Castlewood 127, 6. Radford 98, 7. Buffalo Gap 90.5, 8. Lee High 77, 9. Lebanon 59.5, 10. James River 50, 11. Covington 36.5, 12. John Battle 11.
Individuals
Championship finals
103 -- Hunter Western (CS) p. Ryan McCall (CW), 5:15. 112 -- Tristan Rion (BG) p. Dustin King (N), 3:38. 119 -- Cameron Hurd (N) maj. dec. William Saunders (R), 13-2. 125 -- Chad Sizemore (C) dec. Trent Kincer (N), 8-4. 130 -- Andrew Benitez (CS) dec. Tanner Sutphin (R), 5-3. 135 -- Clay Cundiff (N) maj. dec. Spencer Schillig (RR), 17-3. 140 -- Jeremy Mowles (G) p. Jon Kelly (N), 1:11. 145 -- David Harrison (RR) p. Dustin Dennison (LEE), :58. 152 -- Brady Craft (N) p. Kevin Woods (G), 1:31. 160 -- Wyatte Pickett (RR) maj. dec. J Clark (R), 19-9. 171 -- Joe Workman (BG) dec. Sam Huffman (G), 12-11. 189 -- Hunter King (RR) p. Corey Davis (CW), 1:45. 215 -- Ryan Phillips (CW) p. Derrick Lester (L), 2:28. 275 -- Hunter Manspile (N) p. Cray Webb (CS), :51.
Consolation finals
103 -- Kahlis Caruzo (G) p. Christian Ruewer (R), :58. 112 -- Tyler Tate (G) dec. Caleb Gibson (CW), 3-1. 119 -- Ryan Pyles (BG) dec. Casey Lambert (CW), 4-0. 125 -- CT Talevi (CS) p. Jason Ayers (G), 2:30. 130 -- Mason Agner (N) maj. dec. John Wiley (G), 15-5. 135 -- Scott Freeman (CS) p. Jake Hooker (G), 1:22. 140 -- Jon Hawkins (BG) maj. dec. Ryan Cloud (CS), 15-6. 145 -- Ryan Mecca (CS) p. Julian Minter (R), 2:01. 152 -- Shane McCall (CW) p. Patrick Russo (CS), 2:10. 160 -- Corey Reece (CS) p. Dustin Hurd (N), 2:26. 171 -- William Wright (RR) p. Jordan Copper (N), 1:18. 189 -- Chris Thomas (LEE) p. Ryan Moran (N), 3:44. 215 -- Anthony Garrison (JR) p. Alex Asimakopoulos (G), 3:37. 275 -- T.J. Thomas (LEE) p. Brandon Phillips (L), 2:18.
