ECC Wrestling, part 2

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 7, 2011 1:47 PM

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PIKEVILLE -- Just call 'em "repeat offenders."

Southern Wayne's Ethan Brogden and Jamison Dove, and Eastern Wayne's Austin Helm and James Barrett successfully defended their respective individual crowns in the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference wrestling championships contested Saturday.

Brogden pinned one opponent and earned a walkover after another opponent injury defaulted in the 160-pound weight class. A senior, Brogden easily overpowered Cleveland's Chance Wallace, 19-4, in their gold-medal battle.

"(Wallace) looked really strong and felt really strong when I was tying up with him, but I felt my 'ground' game was really where I won it," said Brodgen. "When I was down (on the mat), I could always get out from under him and he couldn't get out from under me."

Dove endured a 3-2 loss to Charles B. Aycock's Khaleil Owens in the final 152-pound match of the day. The defeat created a three-way tie for first in the round-robin format, and Dove earned the gold medal by virtue of the third tiebreaker -- more technical fall wins.

Owens took the silver.

The Warriors' Austin Helm needed just two victories to secure his second straight title. He knocked off Cleveland's Shane Pilkington and then slipped past Aycock's Zach Rhue, 7-3, in the gold-medal match.

"I just do what may coach tells me, work my moves and wrestle my game," said Helm. "I kind of underestimated my last guy (Rhue), turned out to be more than I thought I could handle. Both guys I wrestled today, I hadn't wrestled at all (this season).

"It was a good day, felt like I wrestled smart."

Barrett logged a perfect 4-0 worksheet that included a nail-biting, 1-0 decision over Southern Wayne's Devin Lee. He is 8-0 overall in the last two ECC tournaments combined.

The Warriors' Nolan Kirkwood captured the 140-pound championship. He trailed 5-2 against Aycock's Zeb Darden, but bounced back for a 9-6 decision in their gold-medal encounter.