Brotemarkle, Leitten lead Fort Mill in Beef’s tourney

Led by senior John Brotemarkle and junior AJ Leitten, the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets wrestling team finished fifth in its host tournament, the annual Beef O’ Brady’s Championship.

Brotemarkle won the 113-pound weight class and Leitten won at 138 pounds as Fort Mill finished just six points behind fourth place Lexington. The 13-team tournament, which draws teams from Virginia, Georgia and both Carolinas, was won by JW Robinson of Virginia.

Brotemarkle won his finals bout by a narrow 2-0 victory over JW Robinson’s Finn O’Dell while Leitten beat West Forsyth (Ga.) Troy Crawford 16-0 in the second period by tech fall.

Earlier in the tournament, Leitten won his 100th career match in the semifinals after beating York’s Zeke Bean by pin fall in the second period. His 100th win came in his 106th career high school match.

Fort Mill also had two wrestlers finish third: Jack Debbout at 160 pounds and Wade Brock at 182 pounds.

Debbout won his third place match 13-0 over JW Robinson’s In Woo Yi and Brock won a hard fought high scoring contest 18-16 over York’s Jeremiah Moore.

Fort Mill head coach Chris Brock said things went well for his team during the tournament, but knows improvement is out there for them before the state playoff push in February.

“We got a few cracks this weekend,” he said. “All of this is just practice for February.”

Earlier in the week, Fort Mill beat the No. 1 team in the state in Dorman 46-16 in a dual meet. Brock said he liked what he saw with his team.

“We wrestled well,” he said. “I felt like it’s what we need to be doing.”

Fort Mill also beat White Knoll handily the same night, 69-12.

Up next for the Jackets this week will be a dual meet at Lake Norman High followed by the Tigerland Classic at Fred T. Foard High School in Hickory, N.C., this weekend. Afterward, Fort Mill will have about 10 days off before competing in the Wildcat Duals in Lexington Dec. 29-30.

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Brotemarkle, Leitten lead Fort Mill in Beef’s tourney."