The Avery wrestling team got down to business last week by opening its regular season with lots of mat action.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving the Vikings welcomed a strong
Freedom High School wrestling team to Viking Gym. The Big Red ended the evening on the short end of a 67-6 loss.
Avery had to forfeit a total of six weight classes during the match as it was unable to field competitors for the respective bouts. A pair of Avery grapplers, CJ Vance at 189 pounds and Devin Buchanan at 125 pounds, was defeated by technical fall but were not pinned. The lone victor for the Vikings was returning state qualifier Brock Yackey, who pinned Freedom’s Austin Pearson with just four seconds left in the opening period.
“Not having a full lineup hurt us pretty badly,” Avery head wrestling coach Stacey Clark said after the match. “Freedom has a good team. They had a level somewhat comparable to teams that we see at the Indian Duals.”
The next morning, the Vikings bussed to
Hickory to compete in the annual Saint Stephen’s Indian Duals Tournament, an event featuring some of the best teams regardless of classification in the western portion of the state.
In its first match of the day, the Vikings took on
East Mecklenburg High School. The day began on a good note as Avery came away with a 36-24 dual victory. However, as the day wore on, competition stiffened for the Vikings. Avery fell in the remainder of its dual meets against
South Caldwell (27-54), Saint Stephens (9-68),
Davie County (6-77), and Kernersville Glenn (18-60).
“We started off well and matched up well weight-wise with
East Meck. After that, we didn’t match up well with many of the teams we faced,” Coach Clark explained. “Not having a full lineup hurt us pretty badly, as did the lack of experience.”
Despite the limited team success, a number of individual Viking wrestlers tasted success with victories on the mat. Buchanan picked up a win by pinfall over
South Caldwell’s Nathan Potter. Jacob McKinney picked up back-to-back victories at the 119 lb. class by pinfall over opponents from
East Mecklenburg and
South Caldwell, respectively. At 130 pounds, Nick Malgadey earned a forfeit victory and won an 11-6 decision over
South Caldwell’s Priceton Braswell, as well as a first period pinfall win over Glenn’s Aaron Hendricks.
Avery’s Brock Yackey won his first three matches of the day at 135 pounds, the first by forfeit and the next two via pinfall. At 160 pounds Cody Price earned a forfeit win as well as a pinfall over
Davie County’s Jordan Hedricks. CJ Vance earned a forfeit victory at 171 pounds and also won a tight match by a 3-2 decision over Cory Seabock from Saint Stephen’s. Lucas Lecka competed at 215 pounds and earned a forfeit win as well as a pair of first-period pinfall victories over opponents from
South Caldwell and Saint Stephen’s.
“When we had an opportunity to match up with opponents of like skill level and experience, I thought we wrestled well. Our guys wrestled to what they knew,” Coach Clark said. “We as coaches have a lot to do this upcoming week in getting ready for
Ashe County this weekend. We’ll go over some things we’ve already covered. But for the first week and first event we had enough success to keep the kids interested and gave us as coaches a good look at what we need to work on.”
Avery will travel to
Jefferson for a dual meet with
Ashe County on Friday, and will compete in a tournament the following day at the same venue.
The Avery wrestling team got down to business last week by opening its regular season with lots of mat action.