Rosewood's Decatur-Luker sets freshman record

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on January 29, 2016 1:48 PM

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Timothy "The Tank" Decatur-Luker broke the North Carolina single-season record for victories (46) by a freshman during Rosewood's tri-meet sweep of North Lenoir and Neuse Charter on Wednesday evening.

Matthew Cruz-Cruz, a senior at Cleveland, held the previous record of 45.

Decatur-Luker (46-3 overall) earned a forfeit against Carolina/Two Rivers foe Neuse Charter, and set the new mark with 2-minute, 41-second fall over North Lenoir's Raekwon Miller.

The Eagles cruised past Neuse Charter, 59-18, and dominated Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference power North Lenoir, 60-12. The two dominating wins sent three seniors out in style -- Dylan Melgar, defending 1-A state champ Kaleb Taylor and Blake Dean.

Melgar, Dean, Taylor, Joey Behrend, Rich Jest, Cameron Helt, Chris Hill, Reid Amodeo, Tanner Smith and Louis Tortual each emerged victorious against Neuse Charter. The teams will meet again Saturday in the season-ending Carolina/Two Rivers individual championships.

Jayden Thomas began a match-opening 17-0 run against North Lenoir with a tech fall over Brian Heck at 138 pounds. Seth Finney and Behrend followed with consecutive second-period falls.

The Hawks climbed to within 17-12, including Luke Wiggins' 8-6 decision over Melgar.

Rosewood, however, as it has done all year, put together another match-clinching run. Helt started a 28-0 surge with a major decision over NL's Donnie Stephens. Hunter Weeks drew a forfeit, Dean earned a second-period fall and Taylor pinned Cooper Cromer with 26 seconds left in the second period.

Decatur-Luker capped the run with his record-setting win.

After a Hawks victory, the Eagles closed out the match with victories from Amodeo, Jordan Todd and Tortual.

"Our wrestlers have been looking forward to going up against North Lenoir all season," RHS head coach Bill Edmundson said. "This gives us an opportunity to gauge where we are as a team with schools closer to our size. We had an outstanding night with some tough matchups.

"Our guys came out ready to wrestle and were focused on the goal. The results speak for themselves."