The Avery wrestling team continued its stretch of action with a dual meet at Madison High School and its annual trek to Robbinsville High School for the annual James Orr Invitational, also known as the Far West Invitational.Tuesday’s match was a one-sided dual meet as the strong Patriots roster was dominant in a 71-11 triumph. Avery winners during the meet were Brock Yackey, who captured a 18-2 technical fall victory over Jarrett Ipox at 112 pounds, and a forfeit victory by Anthony Varacalli at 145 pounds.
“There isn’t much to say about the Madison match, and my mom said if you can’t say anything nice not to say anything at all,” Avery wrestling coach Stacey Clark said following the meet. “I was just disappointed in our level of performance at the Madison match. They weren’t an opponent to be taken lightly and they proved that to our team. I hope that match was a learning experience for us.”
On Saturday the Avery club took a total of eight wrestlers to Robbinsville High School for the Far West Invitational. The team experienced mixed results in the event.
Brock Yackey continued his terrific season with a second place finish in the 112 pound class. Yackey defeated Nick Morefiled of Robbinsville by pin at the 5:00 minute mark, and defeated DJ Rauland of West Henderson 7-6. In the championship round Yackey was defeated by Jason Bottoms of Tuscola by pin fall in the third period.
“Brock wrestled really well at the tournament. I believe he even wrestled well in his finals match. The kid was a good bit better than Brock, but it showed him some things he needs to work on going into regional and states,” Coach Clark commented. “There is not a lot of competition in his weight class in our conference, so this was a good experience for him.”
Anthony Varacalli captured fourth place at the tournament. Following a first round bye, he was defeated 11-14 by John Hicks of Robbisnville. Varacalli bounced back to take 6-2 decision over Jordan Heatherly of West Henderson, but lost 6-1 to Tuscola’s Cody Saggus in the second consolation round.
“Anthony had a decent day. He came in ranked highly, and it showed him that being ranked high doesn’t mean anything. You still have to go out there and wrestle hard and wrestle well. I believe he also learned from the tournament,” the coach added.
Jacob McKinney (119 pounds), Bryan Moody (130 pounds), CJ Vance (171 pounds), and Nathaniel Buchanan (215 pounds) each wrestled a pair of matches, but unfortunately were not able to come away with victories during competition.
A pair of wrestlers did not place, but did earn wins at Robbinsville. Forrest Sickler (135 pounds) lost his first match to eventual champion of his weight class, but did advance to second round consolations as he came from five points behind to win his first consolation match by second period pin fall over Aaron Fritts of Cherokee.
“The excellent thing was to see Forrest bounce back from behind to win that match. It was a real confidence boost for him,” Clark explained. “He didn’t wrestle his best in his last match, but he is still improving, making strides, and gaining some experience every time he goes out on the mat.”
Lucas Lecka also lost his first match, but rallied to win his first round consolation match by first period pin over Hayesville’s Timmy Kelly before losing a second round consolation match.
“Lucas wrestled well, but he’s still at the point where there are still levels he can achieve and things he can improve upon,” Coach Clark stated. “Overall as a tournament I felt the Robbinsville tournament gave us a measuring stick of a number of opponents that we will meet in the Western region that we don’t see that often,” Coach Clark added.
Avery’s dual meet at Mitchell on Tuesday was rescheduled due to exams, but the Big Red is scheduled to grapple with Owen in a dual meet in Swannanoa on Friday evening.
