Bruins wrestle, win as team

Published 11:00 pm Saturday, December 2, 2006

From top to bottom, Northwest Whitfield got a little something from everybody on the team at the Carpet Classic on Saturday.

And as a result, the Bruins all got a little piece of the championship trophy.

Northwest wrestled its way to the team title Saturday at Dalton High School by qualifying a wrestler for the consolation or championship finals in every weight class. The Bruins finished with 282 points, 58 ahead of runner-up Ringgold, while Gordon Lee was third with 188 and the host Catamounts were fourth with 174.5.

Southeast (147) finished fifth, while Dade County (108.5), Cartersville (77), Gordon Central (69) and Coosa (65) rounded out the field.

With consistency throughout the lineup a top objective for the Bruins this season, the across-the-board performance pleased Northwest coach Allen Tucker.

“It was a great tournament for us,” Tucker said. “We had some kids grow up today. We wrestled so much better this weekend than we did last weekend. We really had a lot of improvement and we had some kids who were surprises.”

Merle Bolton (112-pound weight class), Rafael Romero (130) and David Lewis (135) won individual titles, while Russell Royal (103), Matt McCamy (119), D.J. Bennett (125), Kenny Michaels (140), Rich Michaels (145), Steven Walkey (160) and Drew Ahmed (171) all finished second. McCamy was trailing 5-3 during the second period in the finals when he suffered a knee injury and retired from the match.

Alex Cochran (112), Josh Lewis (152), Chris Hopper (215) and Trey Selby (275) finished third, while Kyle Burnett (189) was fourth. Cochran, entered in order to fill out the bracket, did not register team points.

“This was a total team effort,” Tucker said. “When you go to a tournament and all 14 kids contribute, you’ve done something.”

In their second straight day of competition at home — Dalton won three dual meets on Friday — after not having any matches in the Cats’ Den last season, the Catamounts also got their hands on a trophy.

Jordan White (103) and Henry Torres (112) won individual titles, while D.J. Lashus (275) was second, Tyler Maney (145) and Carlos Prieto (171) were third and Eduardo Gutierrez (112), Luis Barajas (130) and Jordan Hooks (140) were fourth.

First-year Cats coach Charles Mitchell has bigger goals for his team this season, but liked what he saw at the start.

“I thought we wrestled really well,” Mitchell said. “For us to finish in the top four, I was really impressed. If you look at the way things were last year, for us to finish top-four teamwise, that’s definitely a booster and that’s really good.”

Mitchell was also happy to see the Carpet Classic up and running again after a two-year absence from the schedule.

Thrown a curveball when a few teams dropped out this past week, Mitchell reconfigured for a dual format on Friday night and said things ran smoothly on Saturday.

“It went really well,” he said. “With the tournament being early in the year like this, the key element for a lot of the coaches is they want to get mat time, so having the duals was really important. With this format, you get five, six matches or more in two days.”

Southeast’s Randy York (112), Nolan Smith (135) and Cory Rogers (215) finished second, while Isaac Carreon (160) was third, and Terrance Jackson (152) and Micah Bennett (275) were fourth.

Disappointed by the Raiders coming away without a champion despite several wrestlers in the semifinals and finals, Southeast coach David Gann said his team will need to regroup and catch up in order to compete in Region 7-4A this season.

“I think our problem, really, is our kids are thinking too much instead of just relaxing and wrestling,” he said. “We’re going get back to a lot of live work and hard work next week and get ready for the Dade County tournament.”

Bolton took home an award for most pins, while Ringgold’s Jesse Peterson, who won the heavyweight classification title, was named the tourney’s most outstanding wrestler.



Carpet Classic

Saturday

At Dalton High School

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Northwest Whitfield (NWW) — 282

2. Ringgold (RIN) — 224

3. Gordon Lee (GOL) — 188

4. Dalton (DAL) — 174.5

5. Southeast (SEW) — 147

6. Dade County (DAC) — 108.5

7. Cartersville (CAR) — 77

8. Gordon Central (GOC) — 69

9. Coosa (COO) — 65



INDIVIDUALS

103

1. Jordan White, DAL

2. Russell Royal, NWW

3. Blake West, DAC

4. Ben Romines, GOL

5. Harrison Hatfield, CAR

6. Josh Smith, GOC



112

1. Merle Bolton, NWW

2. Randy York, SEW

3. Alex Cochran, NWW

4. Eduardo Gutierrez, DAL

5. Alfredo Apodoia, SEW

6. D.J. Stephens, GOC



119

1. Henry Torres, DAL

2. Matt McCamy, NWW

3. Josh Clark, COO

4. Travis Duran, GOL

5. Nick Didonato, SEW

6. Trevor Jackson, DAC



125

1. Zach Hopkins, RIN

2. D.J. Bennett, NWW

3. Jackson Bass, GOL

4. Cole Smith, CAR

5. Blake Roberts, GOC

6. Andy Pichando, SEW



130

1. Rafael Romero, NWW

2. Michael Temple, RIN

3. Manny Hinkle, GOL

4. Luis Barajas, DAL

5. Bryan Thomas, GOC

6. J.J. Gilbert, DAC



135

1. David Lewis, NWW

2. Nolan Smith, SEW

3. Kody Cody, CAR

4. Joey Nunez, DAC

5. Spencer Ruble, DAL

6. Dustin Fuqua, RIN



140

1. Paul Grant, RIN

2. Kenny Michaels, NWW

3. Josh Weller, GOL

4. Jordan Hooks, DAL

5. Chase Higdon, SEW

6. Chris Blanton, COO



145

1. Nic Elliott, GOL

2. Rich Michaels, NWW

3. Tyler Maney, DAL

4. Stephen Avery, DAC

5. Landon McCalmon, RIN

6. Brien McClure, CAR



152

1. Ethan Vaughn, RIN

2. Austin Goodlet, GOL

3. Josh Lewis, NWW

4. Terrance Jackson, SEW

5. Guy Abernathy, DAL

6. Jon Garland, CAR



160

1. Zach Jarvis, GOL

2. Steven Walkey, NWW

3. Isaac Carreon, SEW

4. Joe Eastland, RIN

5. Taylor Chastain, COO

6. Taylor Duckworth, DAL



171

1. Alex Barton, DAC

2. Drew Ahmed, NWW

3. Carlos Prieto, DAL

4. Chris Boarst, CAR

5. Garric Barton, RIN

6. Kyle Farmer, GOL



189

1. Tye Cooper, COO

2. Matt Talkington, RIN

3. Michael Norris, DAC

4. Kyle Burnett, NWW

5. Thomas Spinetta, DAL

6. David Berry, GOL



215

1. Jonathan Gregory, RIN

2. Cory Rogers, SEW

3. Chris Hopper, NWW

4. Josh Oliver, GOC

5. Kyle Barnhart, CAR

6. Zach Toman, DAC



275

1. Jesse Peterson, RIN

2. D.J. Lashus, DAL

3. Trey Selby, NWW

4. Micah Bennett, SEW

5. Wesley Jones, GOC

6. Daniel Staub, GOL



CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

103: Jordan White (DAL) def. Russell Royal (NWW), T-fall

112: Merle Bolton (NWW) def. Randy York (SEW), fall

119: Henry Torres (DAL) def. Matt McCamy (NWW), injury default

125: Zach Hopkins (RIN) def. D.J. Bennett (NWW), decision

130: Rafael Romero (NWW) def. Michael Temple (RIN), fall

135: Nolan Smith (SEW) def. David Lewis (NWW), decision

140: Paul Grant (RIN) def. Kenny Michaels (NWW), decision

145: Nic Elliott (GOL) def. Rich Michaels (NWW), decison

152: Ethan Vaughn (RIN) def. Austin Goodlet (GOL), fall

160: Zach Jarvis (GOL) def. Steven Walkey (NWW), fall

171: Alex Barton (DAC) def. Drew Ahmed (NWW), fall

189: Tye Cooper (COO) def. Matt Talkington (RIN), fall

215: Jonathan Gregory (RIN) def. Cory Rogers (SEW), fall

275: Jesse Peterson (RIN) def. D.J. Lashus (DAL), major decision