Yellow Jackets struggle at Wildcat Duals

A diluted lineup for the Fort Mill wrestling team led to a sixth place finish at the Wildcat Duals recently.

Racked with injuries, Fort Mill struggled in six matches going 3-3 falling 38-36 to Summerville in their final match of the two-day tournament.

Fort Mill fell to Eastside and Lexington in the tournament as well, but was able to beat Sumter, Laurens and North Myrtle Beach.

“This is a tough duals tournament,” said Jackets’ head coach Chris Brock. “There is never a silver lining to losing, but we hope to have everyone back soon. We have the ability; we are just missing the pieces.”

The Jackets need healthy wrestlers heading into their Region IV-5A match this week against Rock Hill as they open their region schedule on the road. Fort Mill is currently ranked eighth in the state with Rock Hill ranked second as of press time, but new rankings are coming out Jan. 9, so how the two teams will fare heading into their match-up is yet to be seen.

The Jackets are currently 12-5 on the season.

On the final day of the duals tournament, Fort Mill beat North Myrtle Beach 50-27 setting up its match with Summerville. The Jackets led from the beginning of the dual and never gave up the lead. Getting wins for Fort Mill were Jake Hart (160), Aubrey Schaffer (170), Jack Kelley (220), Ethan Johnson (106), Cayden Richard (113), Mason Kovacs (120), Jacob Sturgeon (126), Zach Hornbrook (132) and Josh Cizmadia (152).

Against Summerville, the wins were harder to come by and Fort Mill never led in the dual despite the closeness of the final score. The Jackets went down 18-0 to open before Kelley won 5-3 in overtime. Johnson then won by forfeit and Richard won 6-3 to make it 18-12. Fort Mill would pick up one more legitimate win as Sturgeon won with a third period pin to make it 24-18 before Summerville won three straight to take a 38-18 lead. Summerville then forfeited the last three matches to Cizmadia, Hart and Schaffer.

Besides the Rock Hill dual scheduled for this week, Fort Mill is scheduled to go next weekend to Johnson City, Tenn., to participate in the Fannetti-Richardson Classic before returning to its region schedule at Clover Jan. 16. The Jackets will have home region matches against Northwestern Jan. 18 and Nation Ford Jan. 23 to close out that part of the schedule.

This story was originally published January 7, 2018 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Yellow Jackets struggle at Wildcat Duals."