Washington takes first place at River City Invitational

Published 12:53 pm Monday, January 12, 2015

ELIZABETH CITY — The Washington wrestling team took first place in the 2015 River City Invitational Saturday morning at Pasquotank County High School.

Seven of the Pam Pack’s 14 wrestlers placed and the team finished with a 36-22 overall record, a total of 151.5 points. Washington’s final score was 0.5 of a point higher than the second place team, Woodrow Wilson, which finished with a record of 27-18.

Washington’s Jacob Smith, who entered as the No. 1 seed in the 106-pound weight class, took first place with a 16-1 technical fall over Norfolk Academy’s Justin Zahn,  a pin over Northeastern’s Walter Kellar and a win via disqualification, an injury, against Farmville Central’s Matt Garret.

Austin Koonce had the second best individual performance for the Pam Pack, finishing second in the 132-pound bracket. Koonce defeated I.C. Norcom’s Steven Williams in a 5-1 decision and pinned Edenton Holmes Randal Stallings in 1:31. Koonce lost in a 11-0 decision to the No. 1 seeded Montreal Darden-Askew from Woodrow Wilson in the finals.

Returning state qualifier Kyle Krajewski had a notable individual outing in the 220-pound bracket, finishing second as the No. 2 seed. Krajewski pinned Booker T. Washington’s Timothy Russell in 4:46 in the first round and went on to defeat Norfolk Collegiate’s Chad Bullock in a 1-0 decision. In the finals, Krajewski went the distance against the No. 1 seed, Edenton Holmes Anthony Brownridge, but was unable to pick up the win, falling via decision, 15-7.

Simeon Pope continued his hot start to the 2015 season with a third place finish in the 120-pound bracket. Pope pinned Woodrow Wilson’s Tobias Watford in the second period before eventually being pinned by the second-place finisher, Norfolk Collegiate’s miles Edmond, in the third period.

Cameron Davenport also took third place in the 145-pound bracket, the largest in the tournament. Davenport began with a 24-second pin over Northeastern’s B Team’s Travis Clark before losing in the next round to Deep Creek’s Michael Carter. But in the consolation bracket, the senior won three matches, two by decision and one by pin.

Other notable wrestling performances were D.K. Credle with a fourth-place finish in the 138-pound bracket and Neill Jennings with a fourth-place finish in the 285-pound bracket. Washington also had five other wrestlers notch sixth-place finishes — Marcus Smith (113), Jordan Grazier (152), Drew Ferguson (160), Chris Coogan (182) and Ian Stroud (195).

Washington will look to continue its impressive start to the season when they hot the Eli Saleeby Duals on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.