FORT MILL – After a middle of the pack finish at the Southern Slam, the Fort Mill wrestling team bounced back to improve to 2-1 after easily handling York to get a 57-11 win.
The Jackets finished 22nd out of 47 teams at the Southern Slam and had three of the 12 wrestlers they brought to the tournament place in the top eight. Senior Josh Cizmadia was the highest finishing Fort Mill wrestlers coming in third at 160-pounds, Sebastian Colon finished seventh at 113-pounds and Joshua Sturgeon finished eighth at 132-pounds.
Head coach Chris Brock said his team wasn’t where he wanted them to be entering the Southern Slam, thus the middle of the pack finish.
“I really don’t recall opening a season with so many questions in our lineup,” he said. “We are limping along, but we got to keep working. By mid-January we should be competitive. Right now, it is a trial.”
Despite the finish at the Slam, Brock said his team improved a lot over the short time between the tournament and facing York. Against York, Fort Mill opened the match by getting back-to-back forfeit wins at 106 and 113-pounds. Bella Hoffman won at 120-pounds with a 10-5 decision for the Jackets, before Fort Mill lost at 126-pounds.
Fort Mill would win two of the next four matches with Sturgeon picking up a 6-2 win at 132-pounds and Brian Kelley winning 4-2 at 152-pounds to put the score at 21-11 at that point. The Jackets would win out the remaining six matches with two of those coming by forfeit and the other four coming by pin fall. Winning by pin fall was Cizmadia (160), Avery Wilcox (170), Aubrey Schaffer (182) and Kameron Moyers (285). Jessen Huffstetler (195) and Dylan Honaker (220) won by forfeit during those six consecutive wins.
“It has been an improvement from the (Slam) weekend,” Brock said. “We are keeping a lead now. We have got a lot of new faces in the lineup. With time they will get more comfortable.”
Fort Mill now host the Milltown Duals before heading to the Foard Tiger Classic in North Carolina Dec. 21 and then the Wildcat Duals Dec. 30 and 31 in Lexington.
Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM
