Wednesday, Feb. 01, 2012

Format works for Wildcats

West Johnston, Cleveland lead the way at county wrestling championships

As a general rule, it's the emotional reviews by an athlete who has competed in a sporting event that are generally mixed. Not the event itself.

However, that was the case Saturday afternoon in the third annual Hite Association Johnston County Individual Wrestling Tournament. Reviews of the tournament itself - consisting of a blend of a bracketed format and a round-robin competition in each weight class - were mixed.

When the smoke cleared, West Johnston had successfully defended its team title, claiming five individual champions and 197 points - far ahead of runner-up host Corinth Holders, which had two champions and 126 points. Cleveland finished third with 108 points and three champions, while North Johnston claimed fourth overall with 85 points and two individual winners.

Smithfield-Selma, the only team without a tournament champion, was fifth with 76.5 points, while Princeton (64 points) and South Johnston (34) took home one champion each. Clayton did not participate in the event.

West winning its third straight team title was just one part of the story. The other was the dual format the tournament used. Because of attrition of wrestlers throughout the season and because one school was missing from what should have been an eight-team field, tournament organizers put together what they felt would be the most competitive wrestling for each respective weight class.

Eight of the divisions were determined through a round-robin format, meaning all of the wrestlers in their designated class would wrestle a bout against each other with the champion determined by the best overall record in the event. In order for a round robin to be drawn up, the weight class had to have three-to-five wrestlers competing at that weight.

Six weights were assembled into the traditional line-bracketed, double elimination - one loss relegated you to the losers bracket, leaving winners to wrestle for the titles, while losers battled for third place.

Storm Stevens, named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler, led the quintet of champions for West and was one of four Wildcats to earn their way to the title via the round robin.

Ranked second in the 285-pound weight class among 4A schools, Stevens rolled to a 4-0 record, culminating his day by stopping Smithfield-Selma's Isaiah Davis in the final bout of the day for that weight.

Stevens and Davis battled on even terms through the first two periods, before Stevens began exerting his dominance en route to the victory.

"That was the first time I had faced him all year," Stevens said. Stevens wasn't too concerned about the type of tournament he wrestled - just that he wrestled and did his best. "I like round robin because you get to wrestle more matches than in a regular bracket," he said. "In brackets, you get two or three matches if you are winning - in round robin, you can get up to four."

Cleveland's Holden Bohannon posted a 3-0 worksheet en route to the 220-pound round-robin title. Chance Wallace, another Cleveland wrestler who took his title through the round robins, posted a 3-0 mark on the afternoon. Wallace, who upped his record to 31-6, admitted that he "had a better feel for wrestling this season than I had a year ago, and worked my shots."

Cleveland's Dakota Hill defeated Corinth Holder's Cameron Brewer for the fourth time this season to take the 126-pound title.

Unfortunately for Ever Reyes of Smithfield-Selma, losing early, then coming back to win out, didn't give him a title.

Instead, the 113-pounder settled for third after finishing in a three-way tie for first with Dustin Brennan of Corinth Holders and Derrick Applewhite of Cleveland.

Brennan, who defeated Applewhite, took the title over Applewhite in a criteria decision. Applewhite, who had defeated Reyes, had a pair of pins in his afternoon competitions, as did Brennan, while Reyes only had one. Coaches and tournament officials reviewed the outcomes of Applewhite and Brennan's matches to determine Brennan the winner. Because of the three-way tie, when Reyes was eliminated, the head-to-head meeting between Applewhite and Brennan was thrown out.

"This is my first gold medal," Brennan said.

West's Grant Walker picked up the 138-pound title with a 4-0 worksheet, while Aaron Roper of West picked up the 160-pound championship. The Wildcats' Keith Neal completed the round-robin champions.

Darius Dunn of Corinth Holders picked up the first title of the day, edging Tony Jimenez of West with a takedown in the last five seconds to win 8-6 in the final of their 106-pound bracket.

Dyllan Creech earned North's first win of the day with a major decision over Seth Thomas of West at 120 pounds.

George Nathaniel, who endured a winless season in 2010-2011, defeated North's Daniel Reyes 9-2 to claim the 145-pound championship.

North's James Napier ,who extended his unbeaten record to 38-0 this season in winning the 152-pound championship, said he didn't feel any pressure on his back, despite being ranked No. 1 among 2A wrestlers at his weight.

South Johnston's Justin Mim grabbed the 132-pound championship.