Leitten repeats as Slam champion; Brotemarkle gets 100th win

Fort Mill junior AJ Leitten repeated as Southern Slam champion with a second period pin in the finals Saturday.

Leitten beat Codi Russell of Collins Hill (Ga.), who finished third in the Junior Nationals last season in Virginia Beach. Leitten was leading 5-0 in the second period when he recorded the fall.

Last year, Leitten won the Slam at 126 pounds but moved up to 132-pound weight class for the 2015 tournament. Leitten was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. The win by Leitten gave Fort Mill its seventh consecutive champion at the Southern Slam, one of the more premier wrestling tournaments in the Southeast.

This year’s tournament attracted 38 teams from across the region.

Fort Mill had three other wrestlers place in their weight class, including senior John Brotemarkle, who finished second at 113 pounds. Brotemarkle lost in the finals 1-0 to Davie County’s Hunter Smith. Earlier in the tournament, Brotemarkle picked up his 100th career win with a first-round pin over York’s Treyvone Haynes.

Jack Debbout finished fourth in the 170-pound weight class for the Jackets and heavyweight Gray Hinson finished eighth.

“I feel like we could have has some other guys do a little better,” Fort Mill head coach Chris Brock said.

“But this is why we come to this tournament to see where we are and look for cracks in the system.”

Brock said he felt that Jarrod Kimball could have placed in the tournament at 126 pounds, but he had to withdraw after the first day due to illness. Fort Mill finished sixth overall in the tournament, which was won by Archer (Ga.).

Nation Ford finished 17th in the tournament as a team and had four wrestler place in the top eight. Their highest place finisher was Christian Trimble at 138 pounds, who finished fifth. Dylan Curtsinger (145) and Jake Gravely (170) finished sixth in their respective weight classes and Jeremy Kishbaugh (113) finished seventh.

The Falcons are still without senior wrestler Dalen Byerley, who is recovering from shoulder surgery and should be back in action later this month.

“Those four we expected to place,” said Nation Ford head coach Leon Boulware.

“With Dalen (out), that changes our whole line up. Overall, we are a young team and I think we did well.”

This week, Fort Mill will host its annual Beef O’ Brady’s wrestling tournament at Fort Mill High starting Friday and Leitten should join Brotemarkle in the 100-win club before it’s over. Prior to that, the Jackets ttravel to York to take on White Knoll and Dorman in a tri-match this week.

Nation Ford will host a four-way match against Irmo, Indian Land and Vance this week and head to Weddington Wednesday for a duel match. Then it’s on to Dutch Fork Friday and Saturday for the Silver Fox Invitational.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Leitten repeats as Slam champion; Brotemarkle gets 100th win."