For the second time this season, the Fort Mill wrestling team has won a tournament title.
The Yellow Jackets won the Border Wars Invitational at South Pointe on Saturday in dominating fashion, by crowing five winners. Fort Mill won the Dorman Duals in December.
The nine-team tournament featured both Northwestern and South Pointe locally as well as Chesterfield, Lugoff-Elgin and Charleston's Fort Dorchester. Also competing were Weddington and Cox Mill from North Carolina.
The Jackets scored 208.5 points, besting runner-up Lugoff-Elgin by 38.5 points.
Fort Mill brought 12 wrestlers to the tournament and sent seven wrestlers to the finals and four to the consolation finals wrestling for third place, of which two - Malik Long and Eddie Byrums - placed third.
"That is pretty good," said Jackets coach Chris Brock. "I had concerns because we are missing three guys and we are a better duals team than a tournament team. It's pretty impressive."
South Pointe's Charlie Keesee pinned Fort Mill's Jake Strong in the second period at 120 pounds. At 126, South Pointe's Mike Miller beat Fort Mill's Seth Frase 6-2.
The Jackets picked up their first winner at 145 pounds in Nick Leitten, who beat Chesterfield's Travis Hinson 13-3.
Drew Murphy, a fill-in for Fort Mill, was a pleasant surprise; he went 4-0 in the tournament. Murphy pinned Weddington's Evan Lloyd in the 160-pound final in the second period.
In the 170-pound final, the Jackets' Drew Cunningham beat South Pointe's Ben Strong 13-8 and at 182 pounds, Fort Mill's Nick Sinicrope beat the Stallions' Corey Morgan by pinning him in the second period.
Fort Mill finished out its winning ways in the heavyweight match when Zach Dulcie pinned Weddington's Zack Cooper in the second period.
South Pointe coach Eddie Cook said the tournament ran smoothly, but his team, which finished third, didn't. The Stallions had a shot at second place but didn't fare so well in the heavyweight classes and finished with 152.5 points.
"We have been getting better," Cook said. "The holidays gave us some good mat time."
Rock Hill wins
Bearcat Invitational
Cain Beard has been the Bearcats wrestling coach for five years, and during that time, has put several distinguished awards in the Rock Hill High trophy case, including the 2009 Class-AAAA state championship.
However, the one championship trophy which Beard was not able to showcase has been from the Bearcat Invitational, a prestigious annual wrestling tournament hosted by Rock Hill High.
Well, that changed Saturday after Rock Hill scored 206.5 total points to win the annual event, which featured top teams and wrestlers from South and North Carolina.
"We came in second last year," Beard said with a huge smile. "We try to make this an annual measuring stick so to speak. We always try to build our schedule up to this point so that it can prepare us for region and also the state playoffs."
In capturing the first-place team honor, the Bearcats placed among the top eight in 11 of 14 weight classes. In two of those weight classes, Rock Hill wrestlers captured top honors - Jonathan Schavey at 195 and Mitchell Jeter at heavyweight.
Following Rock Hill in the team standings was York, a Class-AAA squad, who compiled 154 points for second place.
Cougars coach David Spencer said the competitive event served as a great tool for what he considers as the state's toughest wrestling conference - Region 4-AAA.
"I would say that we wrestled decent overall," Spencer said, "We had some individuals who did not reach their individual goal today; but overall, we hope that this is a good tune-up for our region, where it is always a dogfight to make the playoffs."
Schavey, who improves to 38-1 this season, said the tournament victory was sweet, especially having come close to the top honor last year.
"I came up a little short and had to settle for second," Schavey said, "This year, however, I feel stronger and I am more confident."
