Great Bridge wrestlers reclaim Southeastern title

By Dan Cooley

CHESAPEAKE

After a two-year drought, Great Bridge claimed the Southeastern District wrestling title Saturday with three individual champions.

The win gives head coach Matt Small a title in his first year at Great Bridge – after he won back-to-back Beach District titles at Cox and a Southeastern crown at Grassfield in 2009.

The Wildcats led by 8½ points over Western Branch heading into Saturday. But Great Bridge went 18-7 in the consolations, including 5-3 in the consolation semifinals. Meanwhile, the Bruins went just 2-6 in the consolation semifinals.

That gave Great Bridge a commanding 35-point lead going into the finals. With Great Bridge placing six in the finals and Western Branch three.

Great Bridge’s Eric Merriam (113), Matthew Reynolds (170) and Tony Williams (285) won weight classes, and the Wildcats are sending 11 wrestlers to the Eastern Region.

“When I first came to Great Bridge, my goal was to win the district regular-season and tournament title and we’ve done that,” Small said. “The big thing from here on in for us is consistency and that’s what we’ve preached all year. The first day of the tournament, we didn’t wrestle well. But today, the guys did a good job.”

In a balanced district, eight of the 10 teams had individual winners. Indian River had three: Brandon Olsen (106), Aaron Rowe (195) and James Spruill (220). Also winning titles were Oscar Smith’s Aaron Bright (120) and Stacey Kennedy (185), Grassfield’s Taylor Misuna (138) and Ryan Fairbee (152), Hickory’s Steven Cotnoir (126), Nansemond River’s Trent O’Neal (132), Western Branch’s Afsheen Hashemy (145), and Deep Creek’s Russell Guerrero (160).