Two guys who had been out for weeks with injuries returned, and Davie’s wrestling team benefitted, placing second out of 16 teams in the Sara Wilkes tournament at Morehead on Saturday.
Jack Britt was the runaway winner with 222.5 points. Davie was next at 147 and South View was third at 129.5.
Ryan Smith was the star, going 3-0 with two pins to win the title at 126.
Alex Gobble finished second at 182. After enjoying two pins, he was pinned in the finals. It was a matchup between two of the top 182-pounders in the state.
“(The opponent) might be ranked No. 2, and Gobble put him on his back,” coach Buddy Lowery said. “The guy squirmed out, then Gobble got put on his back. Gobble fought hard.”
Nathan Howard made noise in his first action of the calender year, going 4-1 to place third at 170. Three of his wins were pins.
“It was nice to have Howard back,” Lowery said. “That was pretty good for his first time back.”
Logan Cartner, who also returned from an extended absence, went 3-2 to place fourth at 145. Parker Correll also placed fourth, going 2-2 at 220.
Although they didn’t place in the top four, Preston Beauchamp (132) and Craig Moore (285) went 3-2 for the day. Jack Robertson was 2-1 at 195. Bailey Ingram was 2-2 at 138. Corbin Kopetzky was 2-3 at 152. Josh Lankford was 1-2 at 160.
“We didn’t wrestle bad,” Lowery said. “We had not wrestled in two weeks.”
Lowery is encouraged by what he’s seeing from freshman Kopetzky and sophomore Moore.
“Kopetzky is young and he wrestles in a man’s weight class (152),” he said. “He’s going to get better. He’s just a freshman.
“Moore is getting better (at heavyweight). Technique-wise, he wrestles with them. He’s just got to get stronger …