Fayetteville wins 6A-West girls wrestling title

BENTONVILLE — Fayetteville edged Bentonville High on Fri- day in a narrow duel to claim the 6A-West Conference girls wrestling title, held at Tiger Arena.

Fayetteville toppled the defend- ing champions 102-94. The Purple Bulldogs entered the last two rounds leading the Tigers, 92-88.

“It was awesome, these girls came out with a goal in mind to win this thing and they battled every single round,” Fayetteville coach Casper Petty said. “We got some big wins where we needed to and they came out on top.”

Petty said it felt “very good” to take down the defending champs in just the second 6A-West conference tournament for girls wrestling,

“It was very close,” Petty said. “We knew that they were the target this year … we came out just ready to wrestle.”

In the finals, Fayetteville claimed two titles. April Stanley defeated Rogers High’s Hannah Scroggins 4-2 in the second period for the crown in the 132-pound division. Hailee Moore pinned Bentonville’s Kalei Owen in the third period to claim the 165-pound division.

“We did fight pretty hard and I actually had a lot of fun,” Stanley said. “I had lost to (Scroggins) previously and I came back and said ‘I am not letting her win today.’”

Stanley, who goes into next month’s state tournament with a 13-2 record and hopes to top her state runner-up performance from last year, was voted the lower weight division’s outstanding wrestler.

“(It’s going to take) just a lot of hard work, a lot of grinding, a lot of mental toughness,” Stanley said of her attempt for the state title.

Ahead of the state tournament, Petty said his team is “pretty healthy,” though they had a “little hiccup” with Margaret Jordan, who wrestles in the 235-pound division.

“She kind of messed up her elbow in the very first match of the day and that kind of hurt us with our team points,” Petty said. “We’ll have to take her back and re-evaluate her and see how she’s holding up. She ended up wrestling her last match, but she wasn’t 100% for sure.”