Tournament semifinals have been nearly perfect for the Archbishop Spalding Cavaliers in this 2010 half of the wrestling season, and Wednesday’s Arundel Holiday Tournament was no exception.
Tying Georgetown Prep with nine wrestlers in the Wednesday morning semifinals, The Cavs sent another seven wrestlers to the tournament finals and crowned six champions en route to the tournament title win.
“We had nine in the semis, seven in the finals and six champs,” Spalding coach Mike Laidley said. “Every one of them wrestled tough and I couldn’t be happier.”
Charlie Lynch was again on the podium’s highest tier in the 145-pound weight class, leading Spalding with the largest win of all six champions and winning Outstanding Upperweight honors with his 10 takedowns against DeMatha’s Josh Couto, and bringing with him champions in Mike Still (103), Cole Graves (130), Will Switzer (140), Devaunje Smith (171) and Kvaunte Smith (189).
“I really think he could be the best 103-pounder out there,” Laidley said of the his lightweight. “Still was seeded second, which was not a bad seed, but 6-1, I think the wrestling did the talking.”
Graves and the Smith brothers had some tight finals matches, with Devaunje earning an overtime takedown win over Blake’s Edwin Callender, Kvaunte holding onto a 6-5 decision against Shane Cockerille of Dematha, and Graves hitting a five-point reversal while trailing Sean Gaetani of Freedom to earn his tournament gold.
Georgetown Prep nearly went perfect in the finals in the team’s second-place finish, winning three of four titles between Matt Laux (112), Outstanding Lightweight Daniel Sanchez (125) and Troy Mutha (160), while DeMatha crowned 215-pounder Dylan Devine of its four finalists.
Sanchez, who pinned Spalding’s Logan Breitenbach in the finals, was one of four wrestlers to pin their way through the holiday tournament, along with champions Murtha, Devine and Freedom’s DaQuante Timbers (285).
Arundel’s Tyler Goodwin was glad to see the tournament come after receiving a number of forfeits to start his 2010-2011 campaign, and earned a 135-pound title alongside teammate Logan Reece, (119).
Goodwin tore through his tournament competition, wrestling just 42 seconds heading into the semifinals and dominating Georgetown prep’s Chris Fegan with a 17-1 technical fall en route to his tournament win.
Reece, too, earned two falls in the tournament, and added a 5-4 decision over DeMatha’s Larry Lopez to enter the tournament finals.
Spalding has been sure to show its dominance in their tournament performances through the 2010 half of the season, and Laidley says the team will do just as well when it comes time to dual-meet competition.
“We have not had a full lineup yet,” Laidley said. “We still have two of our senior state champ and two-time state finalist out of the lineup, and we will, God-willing, have a full lineup against Curley.”
Spalding will head to Curley on Jan. 5, facing the Friars in their first dual meet of 2011.
To see full tournament results visit J&E Sports Technologies at http://sports.jedtechs.com/wrestling/results/Holiday10/32nd_Arundel_Holiday.html.
Arundel Holiday Tournament Finals
103- Mike Still (AS) dec 6-1 Brant Leadbeter (NOR)
112- Mat Laux (GP) dec 5-1 Ben Prada (DM)
119- Logan Reece (ARU) dec 6-4 Patrick Hutton (GP)
125- Daniel Sanchez (GP) fall 1:16 Logan Breitenbach (AS)
130- Cole Graves (AS) dec 7-5 Sean Gaetani (FRE)
135- Tyler Goodwin (ARU) dec 7-4 Alex Rice (CHES)
140- Will Switzer (AS) dec 6-0 Eddie Madden (BLA)
145- Charlie Lynch (AS) maj dec 22-8 Josh Couto (DM)
152- Eric Hoffman (NOR) maj dec 13-2 Bryce Pappas (STM)
160- Tony Murtha (GP) fall 3:35 Pete Ward (BOW)
171- Devaunje Smith (AS) dec 14-12 OT Edwin Callender (BLA)
189- Kvaunte Smith (AS) dec 6-5 Shane Cockerille (DM)
215- Dylan Devine (DM) fall 1:14 Chris Freda (FRE)
285- DaQuante Timbers (FRE) fall 3:09 Pat Hyde (NC)
