Watauga

pins Avery
By Steve Behr
 
NEWLAND — It didn’t matter that Avery could get 12 free points against Watauga’s wrestling team. The Pioneers turned in plenty of pinfalls to overcome it.

In fact, Watauga’s wrestling team overcame two forfeits and beat Avery 48-22 Thursday night in Avery’s gym. The Pioneers, down 6-0 after the first match because of a forfeit at 103 pounds, picked up six pinfalls and a technical fall, worth five points, to make up the difference.

“We’re pretty young,” Watauga coach James Eichmiller said. “We’ve only got a few seniors and we’ve got guys who haven’t wrestled in a long time, so we just try to work on the fundamentals. Fortunately, it worked out for us.”

Watauga’s heavier weights did serious damage to Avery. Starting at 160 pounds, the Pioneers outscored Avery 28-0 and provided the margin of victory in the team totals.

Conner Grasinger, at 112 pounds, produced the matches’ lone technical fall by beating Nick Malgadey 18-3. He took an 8-3 lead after the first period and never looked back in picking up the win.

Still, even with an 8-3 win by Ethan Henson over Jacob McKinney at 119 pounds, the Pioneers found themselves behind 9-8 after 125 pounds. However, the Pioneers took the lead when Jason Wood pinned Tyler Long at the 1:44 mark of their match to give Watauga a 14-9 lead.

“That kid gets after it,” Eichmiller said of Wood. “He keeps finding ways to win.”

Watauga would not trail again. Leading 14-12, Zain Eisenberg pinned Bryan Moody 1:09 into the first period to give Watauga a 20-12 lead.

But Avery struck back with an Anthoney Varacalli major decision victory at 145 pounds and a forfeit win at 152 pounds.

That was when the heavier weights went to work. It started when Jacob Gilliam pinned Trent Mitchell at 160 pounds in the first period. At 171 pounds, Jonah Critcher won by major decision (17-7) over C.J. Vance, and Nathan Jackson added another pinfall victory at 189.

Watauga closed out its team win with a pair of quick pinfall victories. Robbie Sherrill, at 215 pounds, pinned Nathaniel Buchanan in just 38 seconds, and Nathan Cable pinned Justin Crowder in 49 seconds.

“Some of that is due to the inexperience Avery’s got at the upper weights,” Eichmiller said. “But our guys got the job done tonight. They got the pins and they got the wins and that’s what we needed to do.”

Twin City Rumble
KERNERSVILLE — Jackson took second place, Wood took third place and Pinkerton took fourth in the Twin City Rumble held Saturday at Glenn High School.

Jackson and Wood each finished with a 3-1 record. Pinkerton was 2-2. Ethan Henson was 1-2.

Jackson, wrestling at 189 pounds, pinned Nathan Morrison of West Lincoln and then pinned Blake Dalton of Gibbs High School. He then was pinned by Jared Barber in the finals.

Wood pinned Matt Baker of Gibbs and Tim Lucks of Glenn, before falling to Tyler Smith of West Lincoln 15-5. Pinkerton was his first two matches by pinfall at 145 pounds, pinning Chris Griffith of Gibbs and James Samuels of Glenn. He lost to Trevon Faulkner of Davie County 11-10.

Watauga 48, Avery 22
103—Bennett Sewat (A) won by forfeit.
112—Conner Grasinger (W) tech fall Nick Malgadey, 18-3.
119—Ethan Henson (W) d. Jacob McKinney, 8-3.
125—Brock Yackey (A) d. Barrett Williams, 10-4.
130—Jason Wood (W) p. Tyler Long, 1:44.
135—Forrest Sickler (A) d. Taylor Koutz, 12-9
140—Zain Eisenberg (W) p. Bryan Moody, 1:09
145—Anthoney Varacalli (A) maj dec William Pinkerton, 9-1.
152—Jose Munoz (A) won by forfeit.
160—Jacob Gilliam (W) p. Trent Mitchell, 1:16.
171—Jonah Critcher (W) maj dec C.J. Vance, 17-7.
189—Nathan Jackson (W) p. Lucas Lecka, 1:30.
215—Robbie Sherrill (W) p. Nathaniel Buchanan, :38.
285—Nathan Cable (W) p. Justin Crowder, :49.