Rosewood's Quillen gets career win No. 200

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 25, 2013 1:47 PM

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"200 wins baby!" shouted Rosewood wrestlers as Nick Quillen unbuckled his head gear and walked off the mat Thursday evening.

The senior had started his own exclusive club.

Quillen became the first-ever Eagle in program history to reach 200 career victories during a three-team, non-conference dual meet against perennial Class 3-A power Southern Nash and Carolina-Four Rivers 1-A foe Princeton. He pinned both opponents in dominating fashion and emerged just the second grappler in Wayne County lore to hit 200 wins.

"It was awesome, amazing," said Quillen, who donned a bright purple shirt to commemorate his milestone achievement.

The Eagles took care of business as a team, too.

Rosewood (29-10 overall) thwarted a late-match rally and handed Southern Nash a 38-29 setback. The Eagles scored the first 21 points and lost just two individual bouts in a 67-10 thumping of the Bulldogs to cap the 41/2-hour marathon session.

Quillen anxiously awaited the opportunity to check off another goal on his "to-do" list.

The 126-pounder earned the initial takedown against Southern Nash junior Joe Johnson, who was wrestling just his seventh match of the season. The lanky Johnson tried to escape Quillen's strong grip, but surrendered a 62-second pin.

Princeton's Matt Woodward denied Quillen's bid for a first-period pin twice, but the senior wiggled his way out of trouble each time. Quillen finally stuck Woodward at the 3-minute, 20-second mark, which gave him 143 career pins.

"I knew (Johnson) was going to give me a good run for my money so I prepared for him like I did for any of my matches," Quillen said. "He's got leverage and I've got strength, so it was a matter of who was more technical. I wanted to do something good ... memorable (against Woodward).

"I wanted to hit a nice move, but I decided to do something simple and just finish it off with a cradle."

Rosewood built a 25-point advantage with six individual matches left against Southern Nash, but almost let it slip away. The Firebirds (20-6) recorded back-to-back pins and back-to-back forfeits to pull within 31-29.

And heavyweight Ryan Ashley almost stole six more points.

The sophomore, who gave up 49 pounds to the Eagles' Rayquon Jones, nearly scored a third-period pin. Jones received an injury timeout, regrouped and eventually pulled out a 12-9 decision to make it 34-29.

Malik Boyd secured the dual victory with a 10-0 major decision over Southern Nash junior Dakota Medina.

"With us and Rosewood it always comes down to the last two matches," Southern Nash coach Eddie Coble said. "The last few years we haven't been able to get one-up on them. Rosewood's got a bunch of fighters who don't stop ... keep going.

"And my wrestlers haven't learned to do that yet."

The Firebirds recorded 23 takedowns and eight pins in a 65-12 conquest of Princeton. The Dogs got victories from Jesse Tomljenovich and heavyweight Matt Peedin.

Dillon Pace and Tomljenovich triumphed against Rosewood.

"Princeton missed a couple of key wrestlers which worked out in our favor," Rosewood coach Bill Edmundson said. "Princeton's boys get tougher and tougher every time we wrestle them. Coach (Terry) Braswell does an outstanding job with his young men."