WRESTLING: CBA's Doyle continues to look for improvement

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on December 15, 2016 9:59 AM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Still not satisfied.

First-year Charles B. Aycock head wrestling coach Brian Doyle didn't say it in so many words, but his face undoubtedly told the story Wednesday evening.

Sure, Aycock walked away with two wins -- a 47-30 conquest of perennial Big East 3-A power Southern Nash and a 70-12 romp over short-handed Princeton.

Doyle expected more.

"They're exceeding in the fact that their effort is there, but we're not seeing results," Doyle said. "We as coaches have to translate their efforts in the (wrestling) room to get it onto the mat. We wanted to get back on the mat (tonight) and get out the frustration from Saturday at Rosewood.

"We knew there would be tough competition. There definitely was. To have only two people to place, as a coaching staff we were unhappy with that. We wanted to get out here and get some work done."

CBA did.

Eager to avenge an earlier criteria-based loss to Southern Nash, the Golden Falcons (11-6 overall) built a 15-point lead and extended it to 30 with four individual bouts remaining on the scoresheet.

Eight individual victories resulted in two decisions, two forfeits and four pins -- one each from 120-pounder Justin Pittman, 145-pounder Jonas Creel, 152-pounder Zack Creel and 160-pounder Tyler Hughes.

"We're very even," SN head coach Eddie Coble said. "Both of us have good wrestlers. Both of us have young wrestlers. I knew it was going to be tough coming down here with less than a full team.

"It came out OK."

The Firebirds (13-3) missed six starters due to sickness, while the Golden Falcons had three lineup voids due to either injuries or concussion protocol.

Aycock prevailed in five of six contested matches against Princeton, which had just seven grapplers -- including four returning starters -- suited up for the non-conference tilt. The teams took less than 15 actual minutes of wrestling to decide the outcome.

Princeton fell 51-24 to Southern.

"We're trying to see more improvement with the seven guys we've got," PHS assistant coach Tyler Baker said. "We wanted to get some mat time in for the young guys and get our veterans some mat time with better competition. Overall, we did fairly well."

Luke Brush, Ben Bayles and Kyle Balageo each emerged victorious against the Firebirds. Bayles and heavyweight Zach Hill each picked up a win against CBA.

The Golden Falcons return to action next Wednesday in the annual Terry Pilkington Duals. The multi-team round-robin event starts at 3 p.m.

"It was a good effort (tonight)," coach Doyle said. "It wasn't a great effort because it needs to be better for us to progress. As I tell the kids, we are working to get them ready for conference at the end of January and 'money' time in February.

"We're building up to that. We've got push harder to get there."