Strong Field Set To Compete At NWA Duals Wrestling Tourney

ROGERS — Several area wrestling coaches agreed this year’s 14-team field at the sixth annual NWA Duals wrestling tournament is likely the toughest ever, but most also agree the winter weather will affect teams because of a lack of practice time.

AT A GLANCE

NWA DUALS WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

AT WAR EAGLE ARENA, ROGERS HERITAGE TODAY-SATURDAY NOTABLE: Wrestling begins at 4 p.m. today and at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

... This year’s tournament is the sixth annual event. ... Event now rotates between Rogers Heritage and Springdale Har-Ber. ... This year’s tournament has 14 schools divided into two pools of seven each. ... Each team will wrestle every team in its pool, while each will wrestle a seventh match in the championship round with

the identical finisher in the other pool. The pools are; Little Rock Catholic, Springfield (Mo.) Parkview, Seneca, Mo., Springdale Har-Ber, Springdale High, Fayetteville and Jay, Okla. in Navy pool and Bentonville, Little Rock Central, Moore, Okla., Rogers Heritage, Berryville, Russellville and Pittsburg, Kan.

Teams will wrestle every other team in its pool, then take on the identical finisher in the other pool in its final dual in the championship round. For example, the two seventh-place finishers will meet, then the sixth-place finishers and so on. The two pool winners will meet for the tournament champion- ship.

The wintry weather may have kept most teams away from practice, but it also helped fill an opening created only a few weeks ago when Gentry dropped out, Heritage coach Doug Free- man said. Jay, Okla., filled

Gentry’s spot after their tournament last weekend was canceled because of the snow and ice.

That made a tough field, which includes Arkansas powers Bentonville and Little Rock Catholic, along

with out-of-state schools like Seneca, Mo., Pittsburg, Kan., and Moore, Okla., even tougher.

“We were just going to run out a team of junior varsity kids from all the teams to fill out the bracket, but Jay’s a tough team,” Freeman said. “If this isn’t the toughest field, it’s up there for sure.

Heritage and Bentonville were finally back in school on Thursday for the first time in a week and most schools haven’t even been able to practice during that school, Freeman said.

“The only one I’m not sure how it was affected was Pittsburg, not sure how much they got up there,” Freeman said. “But it’s really tough for kids who are trying to make weight.”

The two-day event kicks off this afternoon at 4 p.m. with six mats at Rogers Heri- tage’s War Eagle Arena. The teams will be split into two seven-team pools. Freeman said he tried to divide the pools as evenly as possible, separating the out-of-state schools, along with area school.

“Us and Har-Ber have always been pretty close in duals, so I put them in sepa- rate pools and Catholic and Bentonville because they were 1-2 last year in the dual state thing,” Freeman said. “I also separated Seneca and Moore and Pittsburg and Jay. It really should be a good tournament. We cut it down from 16 teams to 14, but everybody’s getting seven duals.”

Bentonville, the defend- ing 5A-7A and also unsanc- tioned dual state champion, will not have its full team for the NWA Duals since several will be competing the Class 7A state football finals tonight in Little Rock.

At least three starters will be on the field in War Memorial Stadium for the Tigers against Cabot, Bentonville coach Bill Desler said. The Tigers haven’t even wrestled a match yet this year because of the bad weather. So, this weekend will be a huge test for several newcomers, Desler said.

“It’ll be good for them,” Desler said. “We’ve got guys who have never stepped on a mat before in a real match. I want to see what those new guys can do.”

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