Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bentonville takes Tiger Classic wrestling tournament
BENTONVILLE — Bentonville may have dropped a pair of high-profile matches in the finals, but its overall depth proved too much as the Tigers cruised to the team title Saturday at their own Tiger Classic wrestling tournament.
The Tigers piled up 199 points with three first-place finishers and three seconds to easily outdistance second-place Rogers High at 133. Pulaski Academy and Greenbrier tied for third at 117.
Bentonville coach Bill Desler came away pleased by his team’s effort as a whole. Stephen Fox (113 pounds), Dawson Scantling (145) and Bobby Hill (195) each won their respective weight class. Luke Brandon (160) and Cash Jones (132) both finished second in arguably the two toughest weight classes in the event.
Brandon lost to Pulaski Academy’s Jimmy Noel, while Jones fell to Noel’s teammate Michael Crockett in the finals in a battle of four of the top wrestlers in the state. Jones, a sophomore, won the Class 6A-7A title at 106 a year ago, while Crockett finished second at 126 in 1A-5A. Noel won at 152 in 1A-5A, while Brandon claimed the 6A-7A title at 138.
“Pretty good day,” Desler said. “Dawson did well. Stephen did well. We had some guys score points for us. Connor Klein, Bobby Hill. Lot of young kids, but we’ll get there. Luke and Cash, they had tough matches against state champions from 1A-5A.
“The one kid, Noel, is probably a placer at nationals, a high level kid. I’m not unhappy with how Luke wrestled.”
Rogers also got big efforts from Ray and Chrstian Brummett, who cruised through their opponents at 220 and 170, respectively. Christian Brummett is the defending 6A-7A state champion at 170, while Ray was runner-up at 285 last year.
Rogers coach Ken Simmons was also pleased with Jake Turner, who won at 120, and runner-up Ben Blickle at 113.
“That’s the best Turner has wrestled this year,” Simmons said. “In the finals, he wrestled really smart. In some of his matches, he gets away with muscling kids. When you get against some of the better kids, some of that stuff isn’t going to work so well. He stayed in good position and finished his shots off. He never was in a position where I thought he could get caught.
“The Blickle kid was 0-3 coming in. He had to wrestle 120 in his first two state matches. I knew he had some decent ability, but until today, I hadn’t got to see what he could do. He’s a freshman, so that’s good.”
Pulaski Academy had the most first-place finishers with four as Layne Hatcher (182) and Nick Noel (138) joined his brother, Jimmy, and Crockett as winners.