The Avery wrestling team competed in its first dual meets of the 2009 calendar year last week, traveling on Tuesday to Hendersonville for a tangle with the Bearcats and hosting the Polk County Wolverines in a dual on Friday evening.In Tuesday’s dual meet the Vikings fell by the final match score of 45-24, although the meet was much closer than the final score indicated. The evening began with the 103 pound weight class, where there was a double forfeit.
Avery’s Devin Buchanan won by forfeit at 112 pounds, with Brock Yackey earning a 6-0 decision win over Hendersonville’s Pierce Carpenter. Avery was unable to pick up a victory in its next four matches, losing three by pinfall and one by forfeit.
Anthony Varacalli added to the Vikings team score at the 145 pound class when he won by injury default. Jose Munoz competed at the 152 pound class and earned a 6-1 decision victory to draw the Vikings to within six points at 24-18.
Avery gave up a forfeit at 160 pounds, and CJ Vance fell in an 11-4 decision at 171 pounds to give up only three team points. In the 189 pound weight division, Lucas Lecka won by pin in the first period over Hendersonville’s Jeremiah Brown to bring Avery within nine points at 33-24. Unfortunately Avery could not draw any closer, as a Hendersonville victory at 215 pounds and a forfeit victory at heavyweight provided for the margin of victory.
“We had some opportunities to take advantage of situations that we did not take advantage of. There were a number of places where we were unable to get pins, and Hendersonville fought hard to prevent the pin which made a big difference as far as the final score indicated,” Avery head wrestling coach Stacey Clark said following the match.
On Friday night the Vikings hosted a pair of Western Highlands Conference opponents. Avery first faced off with Polk County in a dual meet. In a hard fought dual, the Wolverines emerged victorious with a 52-21 match win.
The contest began with a forfeit loss to Polk in the heavyweight class. Polk captured the 103 pound bout, but Avery picked up two straight pinfall wins by Brock Yackey at 112 pounds and Jacob McKinney at 119 pounds.
Avery forfeited at 125 pounds and lost by pinfall at 130 pounds and by decision at 135 pounds. Avery forfeited another match at 140 pounds, but Anthony Varacalli won by third period pinfall at 145 pounds to make the match score 34-18. Jose Munoz fell in a close 3-2 decision at 152 pounds, while the Vikings forfeited at 160 pounds.
The bout of the meet occurred at 171 pounds when Avery’s CJ Vance took on Polk’s David Burkhalter. In a back and forth affair, Vance emerged with a come-from-behind win by a 14-13 score.
Lucas Lecka fell by a 13-7 decision to Polk’s Jake Williams at 189 pounds, while Nathaniel Buchanan fell by pinfall at 215 pounds to close out the match. In the end Avery wrestled with great tenacity against a team that entered Friday’s match with a top 15 ranking in a number of state publications.
“Polk has a solid squad. They have several kids who are ranked in a number of polling sites. NC Mat News has the Polk squad ranked, so we knew they were tough. We had seen a number of their wrestlers at the NEO Classic at Tuscola, and we knew we’d have our hands full coming in. With the forfeits we had coming into the match, I felt we wrestled better against Polk than we did against Hendersonville,” Coach Clark explained. “We had a number of wrestlers who did not wrestle as well against Hendersonville wrestle better matches against Polk, with some of them doing a great job with refusing to be pinned and not giving up team points.”
Following the Polk match, the Vikings took part in a second dual meet, a make-up dual against Mountain Heritage that had previously been postponed. Despite having already competed once in the evening, the Vikings defeated the Cougars by a 41-36 final match score.
Winners in the Heritage match included Devin Buchanan with a first period pinfall victory at 112 pounds and Brock Yackey with an 18-3 technical fall victory at 119 pounds. Heritage earned wins at the 103 pound weight class, as well as at 125 pounds, 130 pounds, and 135 pounds to take a 24-11 match lead.
The wins by Varacalli and Munoz came back to back at the 145 and 152 pound classes, respectively to draw the Vikings within a point at 24-23. A forfeit loss at 160 pounds gave the Cougars a seven-point advantage, but victories in the upper weights helped put the Vikings over the top.
At the 171 pound class, CJ Vance won his second match of the night with a second period pinfall win over Heritage’s Chad Yang. At 189 pounds, Lucas Lecka came through with a pinfall victory in just 24 seconds to give the Vikings the overall match lead 35-30.
“Lucas has really come on and shown ability that I knew was there, but was reluctant to say was going to emerge so quickly,” Coach Clark added. “He wrestled a hard fought match with Polk but came up short, but came out with the same intensity against Heritage and came out with an early pinfall. He has really progressed here lately,”
A forfeit win at 215 pounds by Nathaniel Buchanan provided for the final Avery points. Heritage won by forfeit at the heavyweight class to close the match, but Avery came away with a split for the night.
“The Mountain Heritage win was crucial for us, as we need a couple of wins to boost confidence on the team and carry us through the rest of the conference season. We had a number of pins where we needed them,” Coach Clark added.
Avery honored seniors Jordan English, Jose Munoz, and Anthony Varacalli as part of the Senior Night festivities in Viking Gym.
“We honored our three seniors and the service they have given the past four years. Jordan has been a solid contributor to the program, despite not being able to wrestle this season. He has done whatever he could do to help us, even weighing in for a match to give the team points with a forfeit win,” Coach Clark said of his seniors.
“Jose has progressed well in his senior season and Anthony has been solid for us for a majority of the season. I appreciate each of them. Their ability and improvement reflects the fact that they didn’t quit. They stayed and learned and became better wrestlers. I appreciate them sticking it out with us and I have enjoyed coaching them.”
The Vikings grapplers travel to Madison for a dual meet early in the week, then travel to Robbinsville High School this Saturday for the annual Far West Invitational Tournament.
