ROCKINGHAM – The Richmond Senior High School wrestling team hosted its second meet of the season Saturday, as the “Raider Rumble 2” event welcomed in several teams to compete.
Consistency has been a common theme early this season, as the Raiders continued to build a solid resume, finishing 3-1 on the day, good enough for a second-place finish. Holly Springs High School (Wake County) managed to pull off the victory, as it was a meet-best 4-0.
The Raiders managed to gain wins over Seventy-First High School (52-30), Douglas Byrd High School (54-30) and East Montgomery High School (66-18). Richmond fell to Holly Springs (53-27) in a less than stellar performance.
“I feel like we’re doing great considering how young we are, I didn’t think we would be 10-4 at this point” said Coach Nicholson.
On a brighter note, the Raiders have continued to impress with a very young team consisting of 15 freshmen, 12 sophomores, seven juniors and only four seniors. Leading the pack for Richmond is senior Brandon Nifong, who improved to 14-0 on the season after Saturday’s tournament.
Dominating the 182-pound weight class matches, Nifong picked up four wins Saturday all coming via the pin. Continuing his impressive undefeated season record, Nifong made victims out of Shaun Graham (Douglas Byrd), William Martinez (Seventy-First), Alex Smith (East Montgomery) and Matthew Rolon (Holly Springs), all within the first ten seconds of each match.
Helping out in the Raiders’ performance were Macus Hester and Joseph Nicholson, who split their four bouts with two wins and two forfeits each.
Hester proved his worth in the 138-pound weight class, pinning Seventy-First Gabriel Carrington and Antwan Church of Douglas Byrd. Nicholson came out victorious against Royal Hamilton (Duglas Byrd) in the 113-pound match, and silenced Holly Springs’ Nathaniel Wright in the 106-pound class.
With Nifong, Hester and Nicholson all going undefeated Saturday, the head coach was more than happy to express how pleased he was with the overall outcome of the entire event.
Richmond has a 62-61 pin-percent ratio combining all matches together. Coach Nicholson shared that he would rather the Raiders improve their ratio, and set the bar pretty high at 75-25 ratio.
Nicholson believes that the young wrestlers have what it takes to make it to the playoffs and can only do so if they increase the pin-percent ratio. He noted it’s a goal possibly achievable by a constant growing wrestling team such as the Raiders.
Richmond will head to Anson High School Saturday, December 9, for its fourth tournament of the season. Coach Nicholson says he and his team will, “look to focus on their weaknesses and improve to hopefully grabbing first place.”
