Golden Falcons defend title

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 5, 2006 1:47 PM

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PINETOPS -- More than 20 wrestlers from area schools earned individual medals and Charles B. Aycock successfully defended its team championship during the Pierce-Davis Memorial Invitational XV contested Saturday at SouthWest Edgecombe High School.

Seven grapplers seized gold medals -- three each from Aycock and Eastern Wayne, and one from Rosewood -- in their respective weight classes. The Golden Falcons out-pointed the Warriors 177.5-144.5 in the team-title chase and claimed their second tournament crown of the season. Eastern Wayne collected its second runner-up finish in three invitational appearances after emerging the Tarboro Turkey Invitational champion last week.

"We are always pleased when we are able to win a tournament," said Aycock coach Kevin Smith. "There was a lot of good competition this weekend, and the kids once again responded with a very good semifinals and finals performance."

Perennial power Jacksonville White Oak, a former Pierce-Davis champion, ended up third overall with 118.5 points. South Central (114 points) and First Flight (111) rounded out the top five. Rosewood took seventh with 106.5 points. A mere 7.5 points separated the fourth- through seventh-place teams.

Aycock and Eastern Wayne competitors combined for 16 of the available 56 medals.

Ngu Tran (125 pounds), Ronald Lynn (135) and Bryant Lancaster (145) captured gold in their respective divisions. Tran needed less than two minutes to score a technical fall against First Flight's Joseph Bunnell in their final match.

"I just cannot say enough about how quickly Ngu can put points up on the board," said Smith. "We had another match going on at the same time as Ngu was wrestling his finals match. I looked away for what seemed like only a minute to coach the other wrestler."

By the time Smith turned his head, Ngu had his hand raised in victory.

"Ngu had an impressive tournament," said Smith.

The Warriors' trio of Chris Tesar (119), Detori Mitchell (140) and Brandon Johnson (215) each picked up an individual crown and continued their impressive early-season runs. Tesar and Johnson remained unbeaten, while Mitchell has just one blemish on his resume thus far.

"Tesar is rolling along and is more aggressive this year than last year. He is going for pins and hasn't had a close match yet, even though he's wrestled some pretty tough competition," said Eastern Wayne head coach Mike Brown. "It's the same with Brandon, but Detori is just a surprise. He's doing great. Nobody has even been close to beating him.

"All three have dominated their weight class so far."

Rosewood's Jim Bish picked up his second individual title of the season with a 6-3 victory over Aycock's Drake Gurley at 112 pounds.

The Golden Falcons also received second-place results from Josh Overton (140) and Steve Bentley (152). Jarrett Covar (215) and heavyweight Khiry Reid each captured third, while Josh Grimes was fourth at 171 pounds.

"I thought Khiry and Jarrett had a great tournament considering this is their first full week of practice," said Smith. "They still look rusty in a few key areas. They were both big point producers for us."

Brown couldn't have been more pleased with his team's effort. The Warriors traveled without four starters -- Tyler Wicks (partially dislocated knee), Timmy Brown (toe injury), Keith Broadie and newcomer Michael Pugh (back injury).

The Warriors got third-place points from A.J. Washington, while Drew Tesar (103), James Knight (130) and Brian Lincoln (152) each finished fourth.

"Brian had an off day in a tough weight class," said Brown. "I was tickled to death to finish second with four starters out. The boys are wrestling good. Everybody got a little bit better than the week before and that's our goal each week.

"Aycock's boys are just strong and they're getting better each week."

Rosewood's Chris Hare (130) secured second, while Olivia Neal (103), J.D. Baker (125) and Byron Cavenaugh (145) each seized third place.

Greene Central's Justin Wellington lost to Aycock's Reid in the heavyweight consolation match and settled for fourth place. It was a rematch from last week's dual, which Reid won by fall late in the third period.

All four area teams return to dual action this week. Eastern Wayne (1-0) is the guest of Spring Creek on Tuesday. Rosewood (1-0) travels to Greene Central (2-3) on Wednesday, while Aycock (1-0) plays host to Northern Nash on Thursday.

"This week's schedule allows to focus strictly on our mistakes from the weekend," said Smith. "We will have time to watch a little film, show the kids their mistakes and fix them. We still need to clean up our defensive counters because we definitely made some rookie mistakes at times, but those are correctable errors.

"Despite our need to continue to improve, I certainly cannot fault our effort."

Pierce-Davis Memorial XV

(at SW Edgecombe HS)

Team scores

1. C.B. Aycock 177.5; 2. Eastern Wayne 144.5; 3. Jacksonville White Oak 118.5; 4. South Central 114; 5. First Flight 111; 6. Southern Nash 108; 7. Rosewood 106.5; 8. Tarboro High 99; 9. Rocky Mount 73; 10. SouthWest Edgecombe 60; 11. Nash Central 57; 12. Pasquotank 56; 13. Greene Central 9; 14. Manteo 7; 15. Roanoke Rapids 6.

Championship

103 -- Ahmir Scott (RM) wbf Landon Lucas (SWE), 1 minute, 24 seconds; 112 -- Jim Bish (RHS) d. Drake Gurley (CBA), 6-3; 119 -- Chris Tesar (EW) maj. dec. Ryan Mitchell (FF), 10-2; 125 -- Ngu Tran (CBA) tech fall Joseph Bunnell (FF), 17-0; 130 -- Richard Barnes (SWE) wbf Chris Hare (RHS), 3:32; 135 -- Ronald Lynn (CBA) dec. Brett Samonia (SN), 3-1 (OT); 140 -- Detori Mitchell (EW) maj. dec. Josh Overton (CBA), 14-4; 145 -- Bryant Lancaster (CBA) dec. Andrew Langlois (Pas), 4-1; 152 -- Tyler Marva (WO) d. Steve Bentley (CBA), 10-8; 160 -- Eric Wischhusen (SN) wbf Calvin Barnes (SC), 3:59; 171 -- Quinton Godley (SC) d. Eric Bobbitt (SN), 6-5; 189 -- Kirk Heffley (THS) maj. dec. Matt Watson (SN), 13-5; 215 -- Brandon Johnson (EW) dec. Corey Smith (THS), 6-4; Hwt -- Eric Sutton (THS) maj. dec. Quentin Jeffries (NC), 18-6.

Consolation

103 -- Olivia Neal (RHS) d. Drew Tesar (EW), 9-7; 112 -- J.D. Cunningham (FF) tie Ryan Mosczienski (WO); 119 -- Timmy Cowan (SC) wbf A.J. Sykes (Pas), 2:52; 125 -- J.D. Baker (RHS) d. Wil Scarf (Pas), 12-5; 130 -- Danny Tiralongo (WO) wbf James Knight (EW), 4:07; 135 -- A.J. Washington (EW) dec. Justin Whitley (SWE), 17-10; 140 -- Josh Stewart (FF) tie James Jones (SC); 145 -- Byron Cavenaugh (RHS) dec. Jasmine Cooper (NC), 11-9; 152 -- Donnie Wacenske (WO) dec. Brian Lincoln (EW), 4-2; 160 -- Morrice Major (WO) wbf Josh Grimes (CBA), 3:47; 171 -- James Krueger (WO) wbf Brian Joyner (THS), 1:35; 189 -- Sean May (SC) dec. Manuel Davis (RM), 5-1; 215 -- Jarrett Covar (CBA) dec. Eric Norvell (WO), 4-0; Hwt -- Khiry Reid (CBA) dec. Justin Wellington (GC), 6-2.