Wrestling: Springdale Har-Ber claims dual tournament

VAN BUREN -- Rogers Heritage pulled off a couple surprises early in the finals of the second Arkansas Wrestling Coaches/Officials Association dual state tournament, but Springdale Har-Ber coach Nika West had one of his own.

Senior Robert White bumped up a weight class to 182 pounds and notched a big pinfall victory that helped carry Har-Ber to a 43-28 win over Heritage on Saturday evening at Clair Bates Arena.

Prep Wrestling

Arkansas Wrestling Coaches & Officials Association Class 6A-7A Dual State Tournament

At Clair Bates Arena, Van Buren

Quarterfinals

Springdale Har-Ber 59, Cabot 18

Bentonville 43, Searcy 23

Little Rock Catholic 42,. Greenwood 40

Rogers Heritage 54, Conway 20

Semifinals

Rogers Heritage 49, Little Rock Catholic 24

Springdale Har-Ber 46, Bentonville 12

Third-place match

Bentonville 43, Searcy 25

Finals

Springdale Har-Ber 43, Rogers Heritage 28

"That last one was a barn-burner," West said. "We had a kid or two lose that probably shouldn't have, but then we had to strategize a little bit. When (Isaac) Bautista lost there, that made us think a little bit, and that's why we threw White in there."

Heritage's Khalib Brooks came up with an unexpected 9-7 overtime win at 160 pounds to give the War Eagles a 22-6 lead in the dual. But West chose to push White, who had come down to 170 recently, back up to 182, and his pinfall win over Heritage's Chandler Thrush turned out to be huge, West said.

"Getting that pin was huge for us," West said."I think last year Robert lost every time to that kid. So to come back and get that big pin was a big momentum swing for us."

Treyton Bater (195) and Jacob Robertson (220) followed with pins to push Har-Ber in front 30-22, and the Wildcats never trailed the rest of the way.

Heritage coach Doug Freeman wasn't displeased with his team's effort, despite the loss. He also noted Brooks' win at 160 as a specific bright spot.

"Har-Ber's a really good team, and they deserved to beat us," Freeman said. "I wasn't unhappy with my guys. The excitement was there. We had to have everything fall exactly where it was to win. We lost a couple I didn't necessarily think we were gonna lose, but we won one we didn't think we were gonna win either. That's just the way the sport is.

"Khalib got beat pretty soundly by that kid earlier this year, and he hadn't been wrestling very well either. But we had a lot of kids battle today. I have no complaints for any of my guys."

The tournament serves as an unofficial dual state tournament for Class 6A-7A but is not yet sanctioned by the Arkansas Activities Association. For the second consecutive year, wrestling coaches from the two largest classifications used teams' dual records throughout the regular season to determine the top four teams from the West and Central divisions to earn spots in the tournament.

A year ago all four West teams swept into the semifinals, but Little Rock Catholic edged Greenwood 42-40 to gain a spot in the semifinals Saturday. However, Rogers Heritage downed Conway (54-20) and then knocked off Catholic (49-24) to make it another all-West final.

Har-Ber rolled past Cabot (59-18), then dominated Bentonville (46-12) to reach the finals. Bentonville finished third, going 3-1 with a pair of wins over Searcy.

West was pleased with his team's overall performance, going 3-0 on the day to finish with a dual record of 35-12 and unbeaten against in-state competition. But he was also quick to point out the focus moves quickly forward to the state tournament in Little Rock in two weeks.

"It's a good momentum builder for us and gives us confidence," West said. "It's good to get the win, now it's time to move on because it's now where we want to be. We want to finish on top in two weeks.

Sports on 02/07/2016

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