HAMLET — Richmond Senior High School’s wrestling program opened the new season by splitting its two matches on Wednesday.
Competing on their home mat at the Ninth Grade Academy, the Raiders defeated Marlboro County High School before falling to Hoke County High School.
Using seven forfeits, the Raiders won 60-6 over the Bulldogs. Richmond then fell to Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Hoke County by a score of 51-24.
“We wrestled a really tough match against Hoke,” first-year head coach Andre’ Ellerbe said. “Hoke was a tough team, and overall our wrestlers gave a valiant effort.
“I am really proud of our returners and our first-year wrestlers,” he added. “We will learn from this loss and look to fix these mistakes Friday at North Moore.”
Against Marlboro County, sophomore Aiden Rountree (120-pounds), senior Andres Sanchez (126-pounds) and junior Christian Sanchez (132-pounds) started off with forfeit victories for 6 points each.
Sophomore A.J. Wilson (145-pounds), freshman Joe’siya Cole (152-pounds), junior Messiah Shaw (160-pounds) and freshman K’Mauri Morgan (195-pounds) also had forfeit victories.
The Raiders collected their final 18 points all via pinfall victories.
Junior Naaman Perakis (138-pounds) pinned Shane Usher, junior Taye Spencer (170-pounds) defeated Jadarius Deese and freshman Adam Simpson (285-pounds) held Anthony Bostic to the mat for a win.
Rountree, Shaw, Spencer and Morgan were the four Richmond wrestlers to combine for the team’s 24 points against the Bucks. All four had pinfall wins.
In his match, Rountree earned a second-round pin over Rainer Schlosser. Shaw also won in the second round against Samuel Glazebrook, and Morgan pinned Anthony Morris just 52 seconds into their match.
Spencer picked up his second victory of the night via the pin against Brandon Horner.
Richmond (1-1, 0-1 SAC) will return to the mat on Friday with another non-conference and conference tri-match. The Raiders will wrestle rival Scotland High School and face off against host North Moore High School, starting at 6 p.m.
