Published: 12:10 AM, Sun Feb 07, 2010
Britt wins Mid-South wrestling tourney
By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor
Even an ailing Jack Britt wrestling team still had enough strength to pull out a win in Saturday's Mid-South 4-A Conference tournament in the Buccaneer gym.
Despite the absence of four starters, Britt held off a challenge from second-place E.E. Smith and added the tournament title to the regular season championship it had already won.
Britt only won two individual championships in the meet, but finished with 153 points for the win. Smith took second with 135, while Seventy-First was the only other team remotely in the chase for the title with 127.5.
"The key to a tournament like this is having your guys wrestle back and take third,'' said Britt wrestling coach John DeWeese. "I put a freshman in at 135 (Colin Ryan). He wound up winning two matches and pinning. Those extra bonus points helped out.''
DeWeese wasn't surprised at the challenge mounted by Smith. "Kyle Sessoms has put together a strong program,'' he said. "We win a battle, they win a battle and the next thing, you never know.''
Smith makes run
Smith trailed by 20 points entering the finals, but got a quick start with victories at 112 pounds by William Clayton and 119 by Malcom Williams. Clayton's win was by a pin.
But Sessoms knew it was going to take more than that. "We knew we needed at least four, and two that I felt were going to be real close were real close, but didn't go our way,'' Sessoms said.
Williams beat Jack Britt's Calvin Hinton in his match at 119 pounds, 8-2. "He was a tough dude,'' Williams said. "He hurt my shoulder.''
Clayton won the 112-pound class over Malaak Harris of Cape Fear. "My guy was pretty strong,'' Clayton said. "I was trying to work his legs more.''
Britt didn't get a win in the finals until the 140-pound class when Tyler Manship beat Smith's Charles Frazier 9-5.
"There was quite a bit of pressure,'' Manship said. "I knew he was really strong and had talent. That's what made me win. I worked harder than him.''
Jared Bartram got the other Britt win, beating Darius McNeill of Seventy-First 3-0 at 160 pounds.
"I had beaten McNeill once so I wasn't concerned,'' Bartram said. "I hurt my back in the beginning off the first shot, but I just had to come through tough. McNeill is a tough opponent.''
The featured match of the night was at 189 pounds, where two of the state's best, defending state champion Timmy McCall and last year's regional champ Kevin Radford, staged an epic duel.
The match went three overtimes, McCall escaping with a 3-2 win.
"Sometimes people wrestle to hold on,'' McCall said. "I've got to take the initiative and score more points.''
McCall was voted the Most Outstanding Wrestler by the league's coaches. They also voted Smith's Sessoms Coach of the Year.
Seventy-First did not win the title, but the Falcons sent four wrestlers to the finals and three of them won by pin.
Derrick Newkirk took the 130 title with a 2:20 pin of Smith's Jeff Zukowski. Larnell Eggerton won at 135 with a 5:52 pin of Cape Fear's Matt Canady.
The third pin came from Jackie Green at 215, beating Cape Fear's Alex Norkett in 1:08.
The Falcons' other winner was Deven Riles at 285, who went to overtime to beat Marcus Miller of Pine Forest 3-1.
Next action for the teams that qualified will be in the state dual team playoffs next week. First round pairings and playoff locations will be announced Monday by the N.C. High School Athletic Association.
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.