CLASS 6A-7A

Catholic scores reversal, overtakes Bentonville

Little Rock Catholic was in position to contend for its first Class 7A-6A championship heading into the final round of the Arkansas state high school wrestling tournament, but the Rockets were not in a dominant position.

Defending champion Bentonville led Catholic by 1½ points.

That’s when Catholic Coach Paul Mammarelli summoned his team to the concourse of UALR’s Jack Stephens Center for a pep talk.

“We went right back up there and said ‘How do we want to finish this thing?’ ” Mammarelli said. “‘If we want to win this thing, all nine of us have to go out there and compete,’ and that’s all they thought about.”

Catholic responded by winning seven of its nine matches in the final round, three of which won it individual state titles and four more were for third place. All were essential in scoring 255.5 team points, to hold off Bentonville, which finished with 229 and third-place Springdale Har-Ber, which finished with 208.5

It was the Rockets’ first team title after finishing second last year to Bentonville, which came up short in its quest to become the firstteam in the class to repeat as champs.

“They had too many kids,” Bentonville Coach Bill Desler said.

That was evident in the final round.

Catholic’s Richard Buzzitta beat Bentonville’s Luke Brandon 4-2 in the 120-poundfinal and Nick Hiatt won the 220-pound final over Bentonville’s Xavier Domineack.

Those victories, plus Josh Chiles’ victory in the 182-pound final, and four third-places finishes, helped the Rockets come back from their slight deficit.

The foundation work for what Mammarelli saw unfold Saturday night was laid months ago after his team finished 60.5 points short of Bentonville last year.

“They made a commitment,” Mammarelli said.

“The very first day, we said ‘Do you want to be state champions or not? If you don’t, we’ll train and work hard in a different fashion.’ They wanted to be state champions and they started moving forward with that one year ago. They finished their job.”

Team scores

CLASS 6A-7A1.

LR Catholic.....255.5

  1. Bentonville .....229.0

  2. S’dale Har-Ber .208.5

  3. Rogers Heritage168.5

  4. Greenwood.....141.0

  5. Rogers ..........128.0

  6. Searcy ..........125.0

  7. Fayetteville .....115.0

  8. LR Central ......111.5

  9. Jonesboro ....108.5

  10. Cabot ..........107.5

  11. Conway .......102.0

  12. Van Buren ....100.5

  13. Bryant .......... 98.0

  14. Springdale ..... 88.0

  15. Mountain Home70.0

  16. FS Northside .. 68.0

  17. FS Southside .. 61.0

  18. Benton ......... 46.0

  19. Russellville..... 40.0

  20. N. Little Rock.. 21.0

  21. Sheridan ....... 10.5

Sports, Pages 28 on 02/16/2014

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