Gryphons’ bid to repeat falls short

Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary

To a man, Rocky Mount High wrestlers entered Saturday’s Big East conference tournament on their home mats expecting to repeat as champions.

The Gryphons won both the conference regular season and tournament titles last season, and finished as runners-up to Wilson Fike in the regular season this year.

Rocky Mount High coach Jermaine Jones wasn’t so sure his team would be able to win again, though through no fault of Jones’ or the wrestlers he can trot out.

The Gryphons’ numbers couldn’t match up with the depth of Wilson Hunt, which notched six individual champions to Rocky Mount High’s five and three runner-up finishes to the Gryphons’ two and stronger performances in the consolation brackets. Hunt, the third-best team in the conference after 10 regular-season matches, tallied 168 points to Rocky Mount High’s 148.5 and Fike’s 112 to win Saturday’s conference tournament.

“I just don’t have enough guys I can run out there…our numbers are way down right now,” Jones said. “So I wasn’t really surprised at this result, no. I’m more proud of a few guys who placed better than I thought they would.”

Rocky Mount High got off to a hot start in the championship matches on Saturday afternoon, as Rashun Lawrence won at 106 pounds and Keyonte Williams beat the Warriors’ Poncie Yim at 120 pounds.

Defending 3-A state champion Wilson Smith, who pinned Nash Central’s Jarrette Hopkins in 21 seconds to win the Big East at 126 pounds, said he awoke at 5 a.m. on Saturday to a desperate message from Williams, his cousin. Williams needed to drop five pounds by weigh-ins later in the morning, so the two ran for nearly three hours – and Williams managed to make weight before going on to take the Big East crown.

Alex Henderson won the conference at 160 pounds by fall over Southern Nash’s Zach Coble, and Se’drak Sheppard took the 170-pound title by beating Hunt’s Marc Perez by decision.

Henderson used the same move he used to beat Coble in their previous meeting this season – a headlock – to score a second-round fall.

Sheppard had wrestled Perez previously and had success against the Hunt 170-pounder, who Sheppard said was jittery and over-aggressive at times. Sheppard was able to stay back and keep calm and collected to counter Perez’s frantic style.

Jones expected Gryphons 132-pounder Amari Battle to place third in the tournament, but Battle reached the championship match. The wiry Battle, his shock of dreadlocks covered up, led Hunt’s Blake Horner, 4-2, with less than 20 seconds left, but Horner tied the match with 14 seconds remaining to send it to overtime. Horner would secure a 6-4 victory in the extra period.

Hunt’s Quinlan Aries effectively sealed Hunt’s tournament championship with a 1-0 decision over Rocky Mount High’s Donte Wilkins at 195 pounds. Aries scored an early point by escape and held off Wilkins’ best efforts to score in the third period.

The Gryphons’ Tycen Hunter was the runner-up at heavyweight, and Nash Central’s Luis Rolon was third.

“Conference, it matters, but then again, it really doesn’t,” Smith, a hulking, navy-blue state championship ring already adorning his right index finger minutes after Hunt had wrapped up its title, said.

“The expectation around here is to win every year, but we just didn’t have enough guys to keep up with Hunt the whole way.”

Hunt 145-pounder Jay Johnson, who went undefeated during 10 Big East regular-season matches, was named conference wrestler of the year. One new criteria for the award this year was that the winner participate in all 10 conference matches, and Smith missed one due to illness.

By FOSTER LANDER

Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Saturday, January 30, 2016