Tide puts squeeze on Devils

INDEPENDENCE –– One of the lures of high school wrestling is that it has more unique characteristics than any other sport. Not least among them is the scoring system.

Galax came away with a 60-12 dual win over Grayson County on Tuesday, a final tally that belied the competitiveness of the match, especially in the early going.

Galax raced to the huge final team margin with pins in the final four bouts, but had to battle for every team point it earned in the early going.

Of the first nine matches contested, only two were decided by a fall. Two others went into the third period with a 1-0 score, including one triple-overtime result, one turned into a scoring binge and another ended with a bizarre disqualification.

Galax led 12-0 on a forfeit and a Josh Carlan pin of Ben Horton at 112 before Grayson County’s Richard Pugh edged Galax’s Wyndom Thornton 2-1 in the 119-pound bout. Pugh’s second-period escape was the only scoring entering the third, and Pugh fought off a Thornton reversal late in the period, picking picked up a point when Thornton was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. Thornton managed an escape late in the match but was unable to take Pugh down in the 2-1 final.

The 125-pound bout between Galax’s Alfonso Quezada and Grayson County’s Cody McGuire was the most intense, with McGuire scoring an escape in the second period and Quezada tying the match with a minute left on an escape. Following a scoreless sudden death overtime period, Quezada took the top position in the second overtime period and was able to maintain control of McGuire for 30 seconds. Switching positions for another 30-second period, Quezada, now in the down position, lunged away from McGuire for the winning margin in a 2-1 decision.

“The 112-pound match, Horton wrestled well against Josh, and Pugh was a state qualifier and we had a freshman out there, and Wyndom wrestled a really good match,” Galax coach Darin Byrd said. “I thought Alfonso wrestled well against a tough kid.”

Mark Thomas pinned Chris Meier in the first period of the 140-pound bout for a 27-9 Galax lead, and Jose Martinez outscored Ryan Cummings 14-11 at 145.

Trevor Jefferson picked up a quick win at 152 when Grayson’s Omar Larreta was disqualified for biting, and the final five bouts were pins. Grayson’s Bo Pollard (160) and Galax’s Jay Miles (171) earned second-period falls, and The Tide’s big boys, 189-pounder Chance Cockerham, 215-pounder Drew Bobbitt and heavyweight Anthony Thompson, all stuck their opponents in the first period.

“I’m pleased with how we wrestled,” Byrd said. “Those were some big wins for us in the upper classes.”

Galax 60, Grayson County 12

103 – Bates (G) won by forfeit; 112 – Carlan (G) p. Horton 4:55; 119 – Pugh (GC) dec. Thornton 2-1; 125 – Quezada (G) dec. McGuire 2-1, 3OT; 130 – Watson (GC) won by forfeit; 135 – Wright (G) won by forfeit; 140 – Thomas (G) p. Meier 2:27; 145 – Martinez (G) dec. Cummings 14-11; 152 – Jefferson (G) def. Laretta by disqualification (biting); 160 – Pollard (GC) p. Karbowiak 2:36; 171 – Miles (G) p. Chase 3:57; 189 – Cockerham (G) p. Thompson 1:24; 215 – Bobbitt (G) p. Cressell 1:03; 275 – Thompson (G) p. Clyburn 1:28.