ROCK HILL – The Nation Ford Falcons came away from the Bearcat Invitational wrestling tournament with two champions.
Mitchell Ladamus (132) and Clayton Rygol (220) each won their respective weight classes at the two-day tournament held at Rock Hill High School, coming away Saturday with championships.
The Falcons had four wrestlers finish in the top eight to place in the tournament. Besides the two winners, Alan Minarro (hwt.) and Isaac Nieves (170) both finished in the top eight of their weight class.
Ladamus went 4-0 in the tournament and won at 132-pounds beating Gaffney’s Mike Mabry by injury default. He got to the finals by beating Chapin’s Carmine Keene 7-3 in the semifinals and had a forfeit and pin along the way as well.
Rygol’s road was a little tougher as he also went 4-0 but got falls at 220-pounds in the first period over Cane Bay’s William Coker and then beat Chapin’s Benjamin Delpiorn in the second period by fall to win the tournament.
Minarro finished fifth at heavyweight for Nation Ford getting a first period pin over Northwestern’s Ajani Love and Nieves finished sixth at 170 falling to South Pointe’s Adrian Buchannon in the third period.
Overall, Nation Ford finished 11th with 103.5 points. Chapin High School won the event with 230.5 points.
“We started off slow,” said Nation Ford head coach Bret Peltier. “As we started wrestling, we got better. Mitch and Clayton are firing on all cylinders. Overall, we did a lot of good things. I feel like we are getting to where we need to be.”
Nation Ford returns to action this week with Region 3-5A matches against Clover Tuesday and Blythewood Wednesday.
Besides Nation Ford, Catawba Ridge also had wrestlers place in the tournament and finished 13th with 95 points. The Copperheads had three placers at the event.
The highest Catawba Ridge finisher was Tony Atkins at heavyweight who finished second falling in the finals 3-0 to Mallard Creek’s Chandler Allen.
“I feel like we are getting there,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Nick Hansen. “It is nice to have the first guy in the school to make the finals in the tournament. We are excited for the future.”
Jarrett Eubanks finished third at 160-pounds for the Copperheads with a 2-1 decision in the consolation finals over Lugoff-Elgin’s Cameron Reddick and Jackson Rozelle finished eighth at 145-pounds losing in the seventh-place match to Northwestern’s Bobby Hall.
Catawba Ridge returns to action this Wednesday with a home match against Chesterfield.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
