Bentonville wins at full strength

LITTLE ROCK — There was a point this season that Bill Desler thought sickness and injuries had finally caught up to his Bentonville wrestling team.

As many as five starters missed time because of various ailments, leaving the Tigers’ coach wondering how strong they’d be for the state high school wrestling tournament.

Based on their weekend performance, Bentonville was just fine.

The Tigers crowned three individual champions, had six others place in the top six and they had the Class 6A-7A team title wrapped up before Saturday’s finals even began at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock.

Bentonville scored 254 team points to earn its first state title since 2009, leaving Little Rock Catholic (193.5) and Rogers (191.5) to slug it out for second place.

“We told them that this was our goal,” Desler said. “We don’t care what we do in any tournament, we don’t care what we do in dual state or conference. This was it.”

It was a return to the top for Bentonville, which won the final two state titles when wrestling was a club sport before winning the first title sanctioned by the Arkansas Activities Association in 2009.

This year, it was all Bentonville.

Bentonville’s Ryan Flynn, who missed part of the year with a shoulder injury, beat Conway’s Dylan Watts with a second-period pin to win the state title at 113 pounds. The Tigers also got individual titles from Aaron Grigsby, who beat Fayetteville’s Alex Baysinger10-2 in the 120-pound final, and Jeff Bizzle, who defeated Little Rock Central’s two-time state champ Justin Arnall 9-1 in the 132-pound final.

Maumelle’s day didn’t get off to a great start after taking a big lead Friday night in Class 1A-5A. The Hornets’ first three semifinalists lost Saturday morning, including defending state champion Cole Brainerd at 120 pounds. But the Hornets still had five wrestlers reach Saturday night’s finals, and four of them won.

Maumelle won with 288.5 team points a year after a runner-up finish. Beebe crowned two champions and scored 195.5 points to edge Central Arkansas Christian (192.0) for third place.

Maumelle Coach Ed Viera said he figured when the finals started his team had wrapped up the title. But he wouldn’t allow himself to exhale until his son, Daniel Viera, beat Mountain View’s Jacob Summers 7-2 in the 152-pound final.

The Hornets also crowned champions in Justin Butler (138), Keon Mcvay (160) and Malik Singleton (195).

Two of the tournament’s No. 1 seeds, Springdale Har-Ber’s Nick Smith and Fayetteville heavyweight Austin Hubble were both pulled out of the tournament by their coaches for violating team rules.