LAURINBURG — The Richmond Senior High wrestling team rattled off seven wins in the early stages of a 55-24 win over Scotland on Wednesday night.
Those seven victories gave the Raiders a 36-0 lead. Scotland finally got on the scoreboard by way of Mark Aiken’s pinfall victory in the 152-pound weight class.
Scotland’s Zayden Christian picked up his team’s second victory of the night by pinning Nate Parker in the 182-pound bout. Scotland heavyweights Michael Locklear and Nate Harrington won by forfeit.
“In the early bouts our guys are young,” Scotland coach Thomas Havener said. “I think I have freshmen all the way up — the only difference is Jahlan (Leak, at 126 pounds). Jahlen’s a sophomore. Didn’t really wrestle varsity last year.
“My first six wrestlers are all freshmen. When a team gets you like that, it’s tough. But I told the guys, if we get to 152 and we’re in striking distance, this team can come back.”
After Aiken’s win, Scotland forfeited two of the remaining six bouts (182 and 195). Richmond’s Austin Gallops also won a 10-7 decision over Brendon Smith at 170 pounds.
“They moved (Gallops) up to go against Brendon, and it was a smart move by them because it would either have been giving Austin a forfeit, or Brendon would have gotten the win against the next guy,” Havener said. “So it was a good play on their part.”
The Scots turned in some impressive performances in the bouts they lost. One of the best battles came in the 138-pound class. Scotland’s Jason Blackenship was able to narrowly evade a last-second pin attempt by Richmond’s Lakota Scott in the final seconds of the second period. Blackenship held a 10-7 lead in the third period, but Scott ended up winning by pinfall.
“Kids like Jason Blackenship, you wish you could multiply them and make a program out of them,” Havener said. “Jason just doesn’t know when to quit. He’s a great kid. Any time that he loses I feel terribly for him. Talk about a kid that gives 24/7 of his time to wrestling.”
Next up for the Scots is the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship meet on Saturday at Jack Britt High.
“Our conference is very, very tough this year, so I want us to come out of conference healthy,” Havener said. “We have a couple guys that’ll place top-four — Mark Aiken and some of the other guys, they’ll do pretty good this week at conference. My heavyweights should clean up at conference. They’ve been rearing to get back. I was really upset that they didn’t have any matches tonight, but they’re going to be an issue just like they were last year.”
Before Wednesday’s match, the Scots honored their three seniors — Mark Aiken, Seth English and Devaun Hailey.
“They’re my sons,” Havener said of his senior class. “They were there my first year. They got me through a lot of growing pains that first year. We suffered some tough losses, and they stuck through.
“The fact that guys can come in and have a new coach that second year of wrestling, and buy into him for another three years, that just tells you that we’re doing things right and kids want to stick around even if they go through the lumps and the hard times.”
