By By KEVIN TRAVIS
Sports Editor
Justin “Weasel” Moore wanted to savor his final wrestling match at Washington High School. The Pam Pack senior, who was honored along with Daniel Garcia and Marcus Reddick prior to the match, seemed to toy with his White Oak opponent before eventually securing a 15-0 technical fall win Tuesday evening.
“I didn’t want to go out there and just pin my guy in like six seconds,” Moore said of his win at 189 pounds. “I wanted to wrestle a little bit and savor the moment because I’m not going to get another one.”
The Pack (8-24) fell 36-25 to the Vikings.
Moore ran his season record to 34-1. The all-time Pam Pack win leader is now 154-18 in his career.
Garcia and Reddick also won on Senior Night, which made Washington coach Dan Riggs happy.
“Weasel and Daniel stuck with us for the last four years,” Riggs said. “They were in our first class. This is Marcus’ first year with us. We tried to get him to come out before. He decided to come out here this year and give it a shot and he’s doing pretty good for us.
“I’m glad they were able to win.”
Garcia (19-7) won his match with a dominating performance. The senior coasted to an 18-3 technical fall win.
Reddick, who has now won three matches this year, won by forfeit at 160 pounds.
Junior Marquin Hill (37-2), now 104-28 in his career, took a hard-fought 5-3 decision at heavyweight.
Washington’s other win came when Seth Derner (103 pounds) won by forfeit.
Suffering losses by pin were Matthew Williamitis at 140 pounds, Jay Campbell at 152 pounds, Raphael Gibbs at 171 pounds and David Giordano at 112 pounds.
Mike Gardner (135) dropped an 11-6 decision and Malik Moore fell 4-1 at 215 pounds.
White Oak won by forfeit at 125 and 130 pounds. There was a double forfeit at 145 pounds.
The Pack competes in the Coastal Conference tournament Saturday at Havelock High School.
“I told the guys, starting this Saturday, everybody is 0-0,” Riggs said. “If you beat a kid before, it doesn’t matter. We just need to step it up and keep wrestling.”
The regional tournament will be held Feb. 19-20 at South Central High School in Winterville. Those wrestlers who finish in the top four advance to the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A state meet, which will be held Feb. 26-27 at the Greensboro Coliseum.