ROCKINGHAM — What’s become a theme this season, the Richmond Senior High School wrestling team split its conference matches Wednesday.
Hosting Hoke County and Scotland high schools for a Sandhills Athletic Conference tri-meet, the Raiders lost their opening match to the Bucks before edging the Fighting Scots.
It was the third time in three SAC meets this winter that Richmond won a match and lost a match.
Also senior night, Richmond recognized its eight senior wrestlers ahead of the action — Amier Bostic, James Coicou, Adam Estridge, Jackson Hamilton, K’Mauri Morgan, Joseph Patterson, Jonathan Ramos and Amir Vaughan.
PHOTOS: Click here to view photos of Richmond wrestling’s senior night.
Hoke County defeated Richmond 63-17. The Raiders responded against their Scotland County neighbors with a 42-41 victory.
Morgan (215-pounds) and junior Jordan Hamilton (190-pounds) were the only two Raiders to finish the meet 2-0.
Notching a win apiece were freshman Dylan Nunez (120-pounds), sophomore Adan King (132-pounds), Estridge (144-pounds), Patterson (150-pounds), junior Braxton Martinez (175-pounds) and sophomore Jeremiah Covington (285-pounds).
Tough Hoke County team hands Raiders loss
Hoke County earned the win over Richmond thanks to six pinfall victories, three forfeits, one technical fall and one major decision.
Trailing 12-0 early in the match, the Raiders cut their lead in half when King recorded six points with a pinfall win. Needing just 22 seconds to get the job done, King held Kaden Oxendine to the mat for the team’s first points.
The Bucks rattled off six straight wins before Hamilton and Morgan secured back-to-back victories for the Raiders’ final points in the match.
Hamilton’s first of two pins on the night came with 50 seconds left in the first period against Timothy Holton. Morgan jumped out to a big lead in his bout with McKinley Alapati and collected five points with a 19-4 technical fall.
Pins crucial in one-point victory over Scotland
A host of Raiders contributed to the 42-41 win over Scotland. Six of the team’s seven match victories were pinfalls; the other was a forfeit win for Martinez.
Nunez evened the score 6-6 with a first-period pin with 1:05 remaining on the clock. Estridge and Patterson went back-to-back in the 144 and 150-pound bouts, respectively, with first-period pinfalls to cut Richmond’s deficit to 23-18.
Scotland opened its lead to 35-18 before Martinez, Hamilton, Morgan and Covington rattled off four consecutive wins to make it a seven-point advantage.
Up 3-1 after the first period, Hamilton needed less than 30 seconds into the second to earn six points with a pin.
Morgan, who has made it his style to strike quickly for technical falls, heeded head coach Andre’ Ellerbe’s advice and moved in for a second-period pin, which awarded the team six points (instead of five).
Following that win, Morgan put Richmond ahead 36-35, setting up Covington’s pinfall victory in the next match to be the match-clincher. After a scoreless opening period, Covington earned the win with 1:25 to go.
Scotland got six points back with a forfeit in the 106-pound match, but that was the final event of the meet.
Next for the Raiders (8-10, 3-3 SAC) will be a non-conference meet at Marlboro County High School Saturday. Matches will begin at 9 a.m.
The Richmond Observer will publish a photo gallery of Wednesday’s matches later this week.
Sports editor’s note: The names of Richmond’s opponents in its match with Scotland were not available on Track Wrestling at the time of publication.
