The Avery Vikings wrestling team completed its Western Highlands Conference regular season dual meet schedule by grappling at Madison High School on Tuesday, February 2nd, then a trio of wrestlers on Saturday to Owen High School for the weather-delayed Western Highlands Conference tournament.Avery battled hard in Marshall against the Patriots, but came up short by a final match score of 64-9.
Three Vikings earned wins on the evening. Avery’s Brock Yackey earned an impressive come-from-behind 15-13 overtime win in the 119 pound weight class over Madison’s JJ Davis.
Yackey trailed early in his match with Davis, falling behind 12-9 entering the third and final period. Brock battled back with a late rally to tie the match at 13-13 and send it to overtime. Yackey earned a takedown in the overtime session to pick up the decision victory.
Nick Malgadey earned a 12-9 win over Tommy Worley at the 125 pound class despite trailing entering the third and final period. Lucas Lecka won his match at 215 pounds by a 6-4 decision over Madison’s Tyler Gonzalez.
On Saturday, the Vikings had three wrestlers compete at the Western Highlands Conference tournament, rescheduled twice from its originally scheduled Friday tournament date due to weather.
The weather and previous commitments prevented a number of grapplers from making the trip to Buncombe County. Three Avery wrestlers, Brock Yackey, C.J. Vance, and Lucas Lecka, each made the trip, with Yackey earning a conference championship in the 119 pound weight class and Lecka winning the consolation bracket and third place at 215 pounds.
Yackey began his championship run with first round bye, then picked up a victory over Polk’s Sean Corcoran in the semifinal to set up a rematch with Madison’s JJ Davis, whom Brock had battled to an overtime win just days earlier. In this encounter Yackey dominated from the outset of the match, winning by 15-3 major decision to take home the championship medallion.
For Yackey, the win marked his third consecutive conference wrestling tournament championship. No Avery player has won four straight championships since Mark Maya accomplished the feat around a decade ago. Yackey received All-Conference honors for his tournament win.
“Brock is one of those wrestlers who grows stronger as the season goes on,” Avery High School wrestling coach Stacey Clark said. “He still has some room for improvement, and we hope to get him ready for Regionals.”
CJ Vance represented the Big Red in the 160 pound class. Vance began his tournament drawing a tough opponent in Madison’s Corry Heath Miller and coming up short in his first-round match.
Dropping into the consolation bracket, Vance dominated Logan Robertson of Hendersonville to march into the semifinal of the consolation bracket. Vance tied up with Nate Brooks from Mitchell in the semifinal, and Brooks escaped with a difficult overtime win over Vance. Vance trailed by a point late in the match but earned an escape to tie the match and send it to overtime. In the extra session, Vance was taken down to end the match.
“CJ put forth all the effort you could ask for from a kid. There was a couple of spots where being rusty on technique kind of hurt him, based a lot on where we haven’t had the practice time with the weather,” Coach Clark said. “As far as a kid goes, though, he does whatever is asked of him and is terrific.”
Lucas Lecka received a bye in the opening round of the 215 pound tournament and squared off with Mitchell’s Kevin Hall. Hall earned a win in the encounter to send Lecka into the consolation bracket.
Lecka received a bye in the second round of the consolation bracket and met Madison’s Tyler Gonzalez. As in their encounter earlier in the week in Marshall, Lecka won the match by decision to capture third place overall in his class.
“Lucas, like Brock, still has some things he needs to work on. He definitely looks to be improving with every match,” Coach Clark added.
Despite a small number of wrestlers, Avery head coach Stacey Clark was pleased with the effort and heart displayed by his student-athletes.
“Our dual team scores were pretty ugly considering our injury situation and only being able to field seven or eight wrestlers. All our guys may wrestle well in a dual, but the matches still end with us losing by a lopsided margin. We’ve got some guys who are really working hard toward the end of the year and getting ready for regional and state tournaments. The guys making the trip today are getting some hard work but benefiting from the experience,” Avery head wrestling coach Stacey Clark said after the tournament.
“The three wrestlers here at the tournament really wanted to be here and they working hard to get to where then need to be. We went back “old school” here at the conference tournament and broke out the black singlets to reward those who were dedicated and able to compete.”
Avery competes in the 1A Western Regional Tournament the weekend of February 19-20 at Alleghany High School in Sparta.
