WADESBORO — For the third Saturday this season, the Richmond Senior High School wrestling team competed in a multi-dual tournament, this time at neighboring Anson High School.
Competing against five non-conference schools, head coach Earl Nicholson’s Raiders finished the day 3-2 overall in the Cat Fight Duals, and improved their season record to 12-9. Richmond placed third in the tournament, the second straight Saturday to do so, and opened with big wins over Forest Hills, Butler and Chesterfield high schools.
Competition got a little tougher in the final two matches of the day, as the Raiders fell to tournament winner East Rowan High School, and also lost another close match to the host Bearcats. The good sign for the Raiders, however, is that several wrestlers either returned to the mat or made their season debut, and impressed against their competition.
Junior Steven Morales (138-pound) made a comeback from an injury sustained last week, and senior Skylar Standridge (220-pound) wrestled for the first time since the end of the Raider football season. Both went a perfect 5-0 on the day, and were joined with undefeated performances by juniors Joey Nicholson (113-pound) and Austin Gallops (160-pound).
Gallops and Nicholson now lead Richmond with individual records of 20-1 on the season.
“Getting these guys (Steven and Skylar) back gives us a lift up top,” Nicholson explained. “In the practice room, Skylar gets to work with Jackie (Bloomfield), and that helped Jackie win three matches today. The guys are seeing some tougher competition in practice and that’s good for us.
“Bryant (Coll) went 4-1 today, and he picked up his pace a little bit,” he added of Coll, who was injured last Saturday. “Now we just have to get a couple of our young guys like Gabe Altman and Andres Sanchez up to speed. We were missing two of our varsity guys, Cale Luckey (106-pound) and Kaden Walker (160-pound). But I was proud of our performance.”
Richmond began with a convincing 66-18 win over the Forest Hills Yellow Jackets. Nine of the 11 wins for the Raiders came way of forfeits, as only sophomore Jamarion Short and Standridge picked up pinfall wins. Short took down Charly Lopez in the 170-pound bout, while Standridge pinned Edgar Barrera in the 220-pound round.
Senior Skylar Standridge went 5-0 Saturday in his first meet of the season.
Up next were the Butler Bulldogs, as Nicholson’s team won 59-15. This time, the Raiders used seven pinfall wins to defeat the Bulldogs, as Gallops added a technical fall win (15-0) over Antieu Rmuah in the 152-pound battle.
Nicholson pinned Noah Luna (113-pound), Hector Castro beat Adam Goetz (126-pound), Coll held Kevin Thai (132-pound) to the mat, and Morales wrapped Vincent Wolfe (138-pound) into a cradle for his second win of the day.
Picking up the final wins for Richmond by pinfall were Altman (195-pound), Standridge over Saba Vashakidze (220-pound) and Bloomfield over Trashard McIntyre (285-pound).
Richmond used seven more pins against the Chesterfield Rams en route to a 65-12 victory. Nicholson, Castro, Short, Standridge and Bloomfield make quick work of their opponents, while Domonique Leviner (120-pound) and Ethan Owens (152-pound) picked up their only pins of the day.
Leviner took down Travis Horton, while Owens pinned Ruben Huggins. Gallops notched his second technical fall win in 15-0 fashion over Jaleel McCormick (160-pound), while Sanchez, Coll and Morales earned forfeit wins.
The East Rowan Mustangs handed the Raiders their first loss of the afternoon, a 46-35 decision. Nicholson noted that not having wrestlers in some weight classes hurt his team’s chances, but Richmond made it close, regardless.
Joey Nicholson grabbed the first win in the 113-pound round over Landon Jones, a 17-0 technical fall victory. Coll, Morales and Gallops followed up with pins over Andrew Martin, Johnny Salazar and Ethan Mastro, respectively. The final 12 points came from Standridge and Bloomfield, who earned pins against Austin Matthews and JT Teeter.
The final match of the day to decide second place went to Anson, as the Bearcats edged Richmond 48-33. Dante Baldwin (120-pound) and Gallops were the only three Raiders to earn a pin, while Standridge won by 10-3 decision over Kyonta Burns.
“Those two teams (East Rowan and Anson) are solid teams, and if you have a weakness, they will find it,” Nicholson concluded. “If we would have won a match here or there, that could have been the difference maker. We did a good job against teams with a full lineup.”
The Raiders will return to the mat Wednesday, Dec. 12, and compete in their second Sandhills Athletic Conference match of the season. They’ll battle Lumberton and Purnell Swett high schools at Lumberton. Matches begin at 6 p.m.
