Wrestlers take down Central at senior night

This year’s Classic City Championship wrestling meet doubled as senior night on Jan. 22 with the team honoring senior Sarah “Tiny” Harrelson. The team won 42-36, a major reversal from last year’s 36-12 loss. 

Head Coach Stanley Lattimore was happy with the senior night festivities in addition to the team’s performance – both of which helped recognize the soon-to-be graduates.

“We accomplished the goal of honoring seniors tonight. That was the biggest thing I wanted to get done, was making sure these guys were celebrated, because they work extremely hard and they deserve it,” Lattimore said.

One highlight was junior Desmond Moss’ win by major decision, meaning he outperformed his opponent by more than eight points. Moss was impressed with his teammates’ performance, particularly given how young the team is. 

“They give it their all. Everybody’s really a first year guy, so they’re still learning how to wrestle and how to get into the wrestling schematics and all that. So I think we did pretty well for our first home meet, and we’re just looking to improve on that,” Moss said.

The matches were very close, with every loss coming by pin. Additionally, four of those pins came in close matches where wrestlers were either tied or winning in points prior to the pin. Junior Braylen Grier is in his first year of wrestling and thinks further improvement is necessary. 

“It wasn’t our worst meet. We’ve had meets where nobody’s won, and Moss is the only one. We’ve had meets where a lot more of us have won. I feel like we should have gone into this meet with a better mindset. A lot of people were playing around, and we should have been more focused,” Grier said.

With the majority of the team participating for the first time they are positioned to continue improving next season. 

“We’ve got a young team, and I’m excited about what we’re gonna do next year,” assistant coach Montu Miller said.