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St. Stephen’s beats Rebels to take West Lincoln Duals LHS finishes in fifth; East ousted early TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Staff Writer Dec. 17 - VALE — The student has beaten the teacher. St. Stephens wrestling head coach Billy Baker was once a student in current West Lincoln head coach Butch Ross’ class in middle school. Baker went on and won a state championship for West Lincoln. Saturday Baker taught Ross a thing or two as the Indians dominated the Rebels 53-18 in the championship match of the West Lincoln Duals. “We just took a (beating),” Ross said. “But if I had to lose I rather lose to him. He and his team area class act. “Overall, we wrestled well,” Ross added. “We beat some good teams. We didn’t lose a close match.” The nine-team event was scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. and after 13 matches later, it was around 8 p.m. But for a high school wrestling fan, it had to be close to heaven. Four teams in the tourney were ranked in the Top 10 in their class by Mat News. Even a couple of defending state champions were there. The tournament is like an Appalachian State reunion,” one coach said. “seven of the nine coaches went to the school.” It all started with the Rebels defeating Tuscola, 37-22, in the play-in match. In the first round, West Lincoln defeated Starmount, 72-9. The Indians had no problems with Southwest Guilford 75-0. Meanwhile, local teams Lincolnton (loss to Kings Mountain 39-37) and East Lincoln (fell to Alleghany 65-15) didn’t do well. East Lincoln then lost a tough 48-36 match to Southwest Guilford in the consolation round and was the first team knocked out of the tournament. Some of the Mustangs said they weren’t focused on what they had to do. “We weren’t aggressive at all,” said Mustangs’ Joe Hanks. “I wasn’t (mentally) in both of my matches. We need to work harder. We need to work on getting up for each match.” Ryan Swengros agreed that not being on top of their game hurt them. “We gave up some really bad points,” he said. “We gave up points we really shouldn’t have. We need to get more heart and wrestle harder. Some days you want to do anything but you still have to do it.” Mustangs wrestlers Nick Smith, Thomas Abernathy and JoJo Dellinger did well. They won both of their matches. In the semifinals, St. Stephens pinned Alleghany 42-24 while the Rebels beat Kings Mountain, 45-21. West had beaten the Mountaineers last Monday. In the consolation matches, Lincolnton defeated Starmount, 54-29, but Alleghany ousted the Wolves 56-6. “We’re doing better,” said Lincolnton head coach Joe Pollard. “This is the best we’ve one here in a while. We had a good showing. We wrestled well today. “We have just three seniors,” he said. “This is the first season of wrestling for seven of our 14 players. We have no wrestling program at the Middle School. So I’m proud of them. We wrestled well.” Both Paul Hargove and Chris Williams won all three of their matches. Bradley Beamer had no such luck. “I did sorry,” said Beamer who is 1-5 on the year. “I just went in shaky. It’s been an awful day. I came in here overconfident. “We have a young team,” he added. We’ll do real good in a couple of years.” Alleghany went on to defeat Kings Mountain to win the third-place trophy. While those two teams were squaring off, West took on St. Stephen’s for the tournament’s title. The Indians took 11 of the 14 matches. The only West wins came from Jeremy Pearson (who went 4-0 on the day) in the 103- pound weight class, Daniel Scronce at 112 and Cory Norman at 135. All of their wins were by pins. In one of the losses, West’s Steele Barber faced last year’s 112 state champion Drew Forshey. “He’s tough,” Barber said. “It’s a chance to prove something. I’m up for it.” Forshey was extremely quick and was hard to hold. He defeated Barber by major decision. Barber hung tough, got some points and wasn’t pinned. “He’s pretty tough,” Barber said after the match. “He’s just fast. He had a lot of techniques. He comes out of a lot of stuff (holds) better than at lot of people. I’m proud of myself. I need to train harder.” When it was over, Ross said it all went well. Last year, his team didn’t get a trophy. This time, his Rebe;s took home a very respectable second-place trophy. And a lesson.
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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