WRESTLING: Rosewood claims 21st USAF/Eagle Invitational team crown

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 12, 2016 9:57 AM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Rosewood entered the 21st edition of the USAF/Eagle Invitational with one goal.

Depend on each other for your optimum performance.

The Eagles accomplished that goal in solid fashion Saturday afternoon.

Although Tim Decatur emerged as the lone individual champion, Rosewood had eight grapplers place in 14 weight classes and claimed its first Invitational team title since 2005.

"A total team effort again today," RHS head coach Bill Edmundson said. "We stress to the team how we are only as strong as the weakest link and how dependent we are on each other for their optimum performance.

"Our athletes were proud to be wrestling at home and came out ready out of the gate. Every wrestler in the line-up scored team points that contributed to the win."

Rosewood edged Jack Britt 206-195.25 for the team title. Holly Springs saw its four-year reign as Invitational champ end with a third-place tally of 159.5 points. Richlands (141.5 points) and William Fleming (Va.) High School (133) rounded out the top five.

Former four-time Invitational champ Charles B. Aycock ended up among the top 10 with 83.5 points. Joshua Wallace secured the 182-pound title and teammate Tyler Marquard filed a second-place finish at 152 pounds.

Tyler Hughes lost his second-round match in the championship flight, but bounced back with four consecutive wins in the "wrestle-back" portion of the Invitational. His run ended with a first-period loss to Josiah Simmons of Cape Hatteras.

CBA took 11 grapplers to the tournament.

Southern Wayne claimed 15th with 55 points behind the solid work of 120-pounder Raekwon Hardy (2-2 on the day) and 132-pounder David Gomez, who picked up three individual wins. Princeton and Eastern Wayne concluded the 12-hour marathon with 26 and 20 points, respectively.

Neither the Saints, Bulldogs nor Warriors had a top-four placer.

"It was definitely not our best day today," second-year EW head coach Aaron Lynch said. "We came out flat in most of our matches and in a tough tournament like this one, we can't afford to come out flat and not wrestle our best.

"Our wrestlers made several mistakes that can be easily corrected. We're going to get in the practice room and fix these mistakes, and continue to improve."

Billy Bryant scored a team-best 14 points for EW. Emmanuel Harper started off 3-0 until he ran into Decatur in the semifinals. Harper didn't advance out of the consolation round and collected 10 points on the day.

Senior Mario Harper did not compete.

A defending state champion, Decatur pinned William Fleming's Kyvar Towsend in 52 seconds in the 113-pound final. Teammates Christian Decatur (113 pounds), Reid Amodeo (126), Louis Tortual (138), Jayden Thomas (145), Seth Finney (152) and Hunter Weeks (195) each wound up third in their respective weight class.

Jordan Todd was fourth at 132.

"The championship semifinals are where we took a beating," Edmundson said.

Nine of the 21 competing schools returned home with one or more individual champions.