Maumelle entered the high school state wrestling tournament as the defending Class 1A-5A champion and with seven No. 1 seeds, so its role as the favorite was evident to everybody.

But not even Coach Ed Viera could have expected the first day to go as well as it did for the Hornets on Friday at UALR’s Jack Stephens Center.

The Hornets started the two-day tournament by winning their first 21 matches, won 11 quarterfinal matches by fall and advanced 12 wrestlers to today’s championship semifinals while putting a choke hold on the team lead.

Thirteen of the Hornets’ 14 wrestlers advanced as they racked up 155 team points Friday and put themselves in position to challenge Springdale Har-Ber’s record of 331.0 points, which has stood ever since the Arkansas Activities Association recognized wrestling as a sanctioned sport in 2009.

Bismarck is second with 113 points, while Greenbrier is third with 108.5 points. Even with such a sizable lead, Viera still played it cautiously following a first day that went so smoothly all but one of his wrestlers was done before 6 p.m.

“If I could tell the future, I’d pick six numbers [in the lottery],” Viera said. “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so I just take it a little bit at a time.”

Even if Viera wouldn’t, some of his wrestlers couldn’t help thinking about what was ahead of them.

All four of his team’s state champions from last year returned this season, and all of them are competing against one another in addition to competing for another state championship.

Justin Butler, who won at 138 pounds last year and pinned both of his opponents Friday at 160 pounds, said that he, Daniel Viera (182), Keion McVay (170) and Malik Singleton (220) are all going for the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler honor.

It would be just another coup for a team that appears to have its second consecutive state title wrapped up heading into the second day of competition.

Since the AAA’s first sanctioned state wrestling tournament in 2009, no team in either class has repeated as state champion.

“It’s what we were shooting for: Being on top, staying on top,” Butler said. “Coach talks about how we can make history with how many points we can score.”

Things don’t appear to be as clear-cut in Class 6A-7A.

Springdale Har-Ber, Little Rock Catholic and Bentonville were separated by seven points at the top of the team scoring when the quarterfinal round began. But after a quarterfinal round in which Catholic advanced nine wrestlers to today’s semifinals, the Rockets have taken a lead and placed themselves in position to win their first state championship.

Catholic led after Friday’s final consolation round with 142.5 points, while Har-Ber was second with 136.5. Bentonville was third with 130.0

Catholic, which finished second to Bentonville last year, advanced all four of its No. 1 seeds to the semifinals, including defending champion Josh Chiles (182). The Rockets lost only 3 of 12 quarterfinal matches, one of which was suffered by Cameron Boardman (160), who was pinned by Little Rock Central’s Tyler Mann in his quest for a fourth state championship.

“They came out of last year No. 2 and they wanted to do better,” Catholic Coach Paul Mammarelli said. “They worked on it all year long. We’re more solid at all 14 weight classes than we’ve been in a long time, so that was big.”

Har-Ber lost its lead with quarterfinal losses at 106, 126, 145, 160 and 170 pounds and heavyweight. The Wildcats, who won the state title in 2012, advanced six wrestlers to the semifinals. Bentonville also has six alive for individual titles.

“Some guys came down here expecting to win,” Har-Ber Coach Nika West said. “For a guy to lose who is expecting to win, the toughest thing to do is bounce back. It’s my job to make him understand that his role now becomes more important.”

Sports, Pages 25 on 02/15/2014