Ed Viera was cautious about predicting the possibilities of his Maumelle wrestling team before Saturday night’s final round of the Arkansas state high school wrestling tournament.
The possibilities seemed endless for the Hornets.
Maumelle crowned a record nine individual champions, placed 13 wrestlers and piled up a record 352.5 team points while winning the Class 1A-5A team title at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock, becoming the first team in either class in the tournament’s six-year history to repeat as champs.
The Hornets, who were never threatened after taking a big lead Friday afternoon, won four of the championship matches by fall and had the team points record set by Springdale Har-Ber with 331.0 two years ago, broken halfway through Saturday night’s final round.
“We must be doing the right things,” Viera said.
“We just battled. Our expectations are high, we expect a lot of the kids and they respond.”
Maumelle already had a team title wrapped up before the final round started, then the Hornets unleashed their most impressive round of the tournament.
Andrew Menchacha won Maumelle’s first title at 106 pounds. Then Cole Brainerd’s 7-5 sudden victory in the 126-pound final over Pulaski Academy’s Jackson Marchant helped the Hornets find another gear.
Brainerd, who won a state title two years ago and is a four-time medal winner, was seeded fourth by the state’s coaches earlier this week. That, Viera said, didn’t sit well with some.
“It kind of upset him, and upset me and upset everybody on our staff,” Viera said. “It made a big difference. It gave everybody an extra shot of adrenaline.”
Maumelle wrestlers won their next seven finals matches after the victory by Brainerd. Marcus Dennis beat Little Rock Christian’s Kevin Knox 4-3 at 138 pounds, then Noah Hightower (145), Willie Wright (152) and Keion McVay (170) each won by fall while Justin Butler won by technical fall at 160 to win his third state championship, and Daniel Viera beat Little Rock Christian’s Ben Thompson 4-1 at 182 pounds.
Maumelle won 44 matches in the two-day tournament, 30 by pin.
Viera cracked a wide smile when informed of his team’s pin total.
“That’s a lot,” he said. “It’s the high expectations that we have of our kids. The way we expect them to perform, the way we expect them to act, all those things.”Team scores
CLASS 1A-5A
1.Maumelle................................ 352.5
2.Bismarck ................................ 198.0
3.Central Arkansas Christian ............ 196.5
4.Greenbrier ............................... 192.5
5.LR Christian............................. 155.5
6.Beebe .................................... 155.0
7.Pulaski Academy ....................... 119.5
8.Berryville ..................................89.0
8.LR McClellan..............................89.0
10.Gentry ....................................84.5
11.HS Lakeside .............................66.0
12.Episcopal Collegiate ....................58.5
13.Ashdown.................................54.0
14.Mountain View ..........................36.0
15.Hot Springs..............................30.0
15.Shiloh Christian .........................30.0
15.Woodlawn ...............................30.0
18 Valley View ..............................27.0
19 Cross County............................26.0
20.Des Arc...................................13.5
21.Pulaski Robinson .......................10.0
22.Ark. School for the Blind ............... 9.0
22.Glen Rose................................. 9.0
22.North Pulaski............................. 9.0
25.Southside Batesville ..................... 8.0
Sports, Pages 28 on 02/16/2014