Pilkington Duals: Aycock grapplers eager to get back onto the mat

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 26, 2014 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- After a second-place finish in the highly-competitive North Pitt Invitational, the Charles B. Aycock wrestling team is eager to roll around on the mat again.

The Golden Falcons get that chance Saturday morning.

Five teams will invade the Falcons' Nest for the annual Terry Pilkington Memorial Duals, a day-long dual-team tournament that honors the late Terry Pilkington who resurrected Aycock's program in the 1990s.

Joining Aycock are defending champion Rosewood, former Pilkington champ Southern Wayne, Wilson Beddingfield, Smithfield-Selma and Princeton.

"We are looking forward to Saturday," second-year CBA head coach Ronnie Allen said. "After coming off a great weekend last week (at North Pitt), the team is eager to get into another tournament. We will be wrestling some great teams and it gives us a chance to see how we compare to some of the local teams not in our conference, but one we might see again in (the east) regional tournament.

"It's always a pleasure to have teams come to our home and wrestle."

Since its inception in 1999, just five schools have combined to win the previous 15 Pilkington events. The Golden Falcons won six consecutive championships from 2001-07.

Cleveland, Rosewood, Washington, Southern Wayne and Washington have each hoisted the Pilkington plaque in victory on two occasions.

Less than a week ago, the Golden Falcons had three individuals take home first-place medals at North Pitt -- Alex Johnson (106 pounds), Joshua Wallace (152) and Jacob Dickenson (120). Senior Zack Howard placed second, while heavyweight Matt Teachey ended up third.

Brandon Washington took fourth.