LITTLE ROCK -- Crosstown rivals Rogers High and Rogers Heritage have battled back and forth the past few weeks for supremacy in high school wrestling in the large school classification.
Heritage came from behind to defeat Rogers and win the Big West Conference tournament a week ago. The War Eagles will need to do it again if they are to claim the Class 6A-7A Arkansas State High School Wrestling tournament title.
CLASS 6A-7A
TEAM SCORES
- Rogers 105.5
- Rogers Heritage 103.0
- Springdale Har-Ber 95.0
- Cabot 89.0
- Greenwood 89.0
- Searcy 79.0
- Bentonville 74.5
- LR Catholic 74.5
- LR Central 68.5
- Conway n61.0
- Fayetteville 49.5
- Springdale;24.5
The Mounties lead the team competition with 105.5 points, just ahead of Heritage's 103 and Springdale Har-Ber with 95 after Friday's first day of action at the Jack Stephens Center.
Rogers leads the way with seven semifinalists, but Cabot and Searcy have six each, while Heritage and Har-Ber have five apiece. Cabot and Greenwood are tied for fourth with 89 points each.
The teams have traded punches over the last couple weeks with Heritage rallying past Rogers to win the Big West Conference tournament a week ago. The week before that Rogers defeated Heritage on its way to the Dual State title, but the War Eagles returned the favor three days later on Senior Night in War Eagle Arena.
Rogers coach Ken Simmons would like keep the hardware in the city.
"I'm hoping it's us and Heritage," Simmons said. "I'd like to see us come home with both trophies. We like beating them, but if my kids don't win we root for them. I said at the beginning of the year Heritage was the team to beat, not us. That's what we set our sights on.
"With the guys we started with, I'm happy to be in the picture. We're in the hunt. Hopefully, they rise to the occasion."
Simmons said his team could have been a little bit better Friday.
"We had the guys win that we expected to win," Simmons said. "But we haven't really wrestled overall as aggressively as I wanted. Too many close matches. As long as you're winning those close matches, it's OK.
"The kids who are winning are doing what they've done all year."
Heritage coach Doug Freeman's assessment was similar to Simmons. But he has one big gun back in his lineup, which wasn't around last weekend. Senior Jordan Vazquez, the top seed at 182, was nursing an injury and didn't compete in the Big West tournament.
"I would have liked to have won one or two more matches, but overall we're sitting right about where I thought we would be. The morning will tell everything. The kids going to the finals or not."
Heritage didn't finish the night on a strong note as three War Eagles were eliminated from the tournament in consolation bracket matches in the final round. Freeman said those points from the back side of the bracket could be key.
Individually, there were few upsets with the top three seeds advancing to the semifinals in 11 of the 14 weight classes. Bentonville's Aaron Grigsby, the top seed at 132, will try to win his third consecutive state title. Fayetteville's Jaxson Nolen (52-2) will try to go back-to-back, after winning at 152 a year ago.
Sports on 02/21/2015