HAMLET — The Richmond Raider wrestling team wrapped up its regular season with two matches on its home mat on Tuesday.
Returning to action after several scheduling changes because of winter weather, the Raiders capped their season with a win over Lee County High School and a loss to Sandhills Athletic Conference champion Pinecrest High School.
Also competing in the conference meet at the Ninth Grade Academy were Scotland and Hoke County high schools.
In their first match, the Raiders rolled past the Yellow Jackets 55-12. Four Raiders picked up pinfall wins, four others had a forfeit victory and Richmond added one major decision and one minor decision victory.
“We wrestled great against Lee County, which is always a tough team,” head coach Andre’ Ellerbe said. “We put up some great numbers with pins, but I think we wanted to up our number of major decisions.
“We’re working on getting better and going into the conference championship, we were able to do a lot of good things tonight that will help us,” he added. “I’m going to hammer home to the guys that we have to go back to our arsenal and be prepared with other moves.”
Getting six fast points via a forfeit victory were junior Caelib Hubbard (106-pound), freshman Adam Estridge (120-pound), junior Messiah Shaw (160-pound) and freshman Curtis McDonald (195-pound).
Senior Andres Sanchez (132-pound) became the first Raider to earn a pinfall victory in the match. With 33 seconds left in the opening round, he held Colby Fallin to the mat for the win.
Andres Sanchez works against his opponent during Tuesday’s match. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)
Junior Naaman Perakis (138-pound) followed with another first-round pin to open the Raiders’ lead. He defeated Michael Ritman with 58 seconds left on the clock.
Athlete of the Week Favian Rivera (152-pound) added a pin against Dylan Stewart just past the halfway point of the first round.
Earning the fastest pin of the match for Richmond was freshman K’Mauri Morgan in the 182-pound bout. Needing just 15 seconds to earn six points and the pinfall victory, Morgan cruised past Rylan Raeder.
Naaman Perakis wrestles against a Lee County opponent before pinning him in the first round. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)
Tacking on four points with a 13-3 major decision was junior Jaxon Martin (145-pound), who opened up a 2-1 lead after the first round. He scored four points in the second round before ending with seven points in the third.
Fellow junior Christian Sanchez also went three rounds against his opponent, M.J. Piotrowski, and clinched a 7-3 minor decision for the final three points.
Lee County used one forfeit and one pinfall win to collect its 12 points.
Freshman K’Mauri Morgan with the initial takedown of his Lee County opponent before pinning him. (Kyle Pillar/The Richmond Observer)
The Patriots, which clinched the SAC regular-season title last week, showed their experience by shutting out the Raiders 84-0. Pinecrest had 11 pinfall victories and three forfeits in the match.
“Every one of our wrestlers had a good night and I can’t pinpoint who had the best night,” Ellerbe said. “Christian was able to fight off his back to get a win, Naaman’s chicken wing series was really clutch and Jaxon’s spin drill was good. They’re capitalizing on the things we’re working on in practice.”
“Pinecrest is one of the toughest teams we’ll face and I thought the guys put up a valiant effort,” he closed. “We plan on taking those losses and learning from them and putting on a good show for conference.”
The Raiders will compete in the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship on Wednesday at Union Pines High School. Matches will begin at 4 p.m.
