Knights grapplers capture region crown | Sports | Our Gazette

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Knights grapplers capture region crown

Published Thursday, February 02, 2012 11:09 AM

By Rob Gantt
The Gazette

Stratford’s wrestling team pinned down another region championship.

The Knights defeated rival Goose Creek 42-18 on Jan. 25, capturing their eighth region championship since 2002. It’s their fourth region title in the last five seasons.

“We did a great job wrestling as a team,” said Stratford coach Willie Nearhood, whose team finished 4-0 in the region. “There were matches we thought ahead of time we were going to win and we didn’t. Then there was a couple we didn’t think we were going to win but we wrestled as a team and came through.

“It was a great team effort. I’m real proud of them.”

But Nearhood also expects his team to understand there is more to be accomplished. The Class AAAA duals begin on Saturday, and the Knights will host a four-team, single-elimination event.

The Knights (26-3) meet a team from Region 4 in one match, while Beaufort and White Knoll compete in another match.

The losers are eliminated and the winners meet one another to see who will advance to the third round on Feb. 6.

“The last couple of years we’ve put too much emphasis on (the region championship) and when we won it, the kids thought the season was over,” Nearhood said. “Then we’d kind of go into the state duals kind of flat. This year, we kind of approached (the region championship) as an expectation. I’ve been really pushing and focusing on the state duals, and seeing if we can get to that last match of the year and wrestle for a state championship.”

Goose Creek finished second in the region and will begin the playoffs on Saturday. They will be at Lexington, and will face a team from Region 6-AAAA first before possibly meeting the top-seeded Wildcats.

Against Goose Creek, Austin Koile (160), Brandon Young (220) and Chad Johnson (126) had pins for the Knights. Oscar Rodriguez (145) had a tech fall.

Nick Pinckney (132) recorded a pin for the Gators.

160: Austin Koile (S) p. Avery Benjamin. 170: Albert Mallard (GC) d. Dylan Legette 4-3. 182: Noah Shuler (S) d. Steven Dezelle, 7-0. 195: Trevon Bennett (GC) d. Isaac Greer, 10-5. 220: Brandon Young (S) p. Davon Mitchell. 285: Tre Cobin (GC) d. Phillip Nich, 8-3. 106: Billy Ackerman (S) d. Christian Moultrie, 4-3. 113: Mark Moran (GC) d. John Watkins, 11-6. 120: Nick Young (S) majd. Reggie Smith, 14-6. 126: Chad Johnson (S) p. Grant. 132: Nick Pinckney (GC) p. Shider. 138: Jon Ilgenfritz (S) wbf. 145: Oscar Rodriguez (S) techf. T.J. Lewis, 17-2. 152: TelVaughn Smith (S) d. Devon Devore, 6-2.

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