12 Feb 2014 State wrestling tourney starts Friday
by Hunter Brooks
The Arkansas Wrestling Association will be holding the sixth annual state high school wrestling tournament Friday, Feb. 14, and Saturday, Feb. 15, at UALR’s Jack Stephens Arena.
There are an expected 485 wrestlers, up from 430 last year, from 48 schools, up from 46, scheduled to compete.
Bentonville is the defending state champion in 6A-7A division, while Maumelle is the reigning state champion from division 1A-5A.
Maumelle head coach Viera Godwal likes his team’s chances of repeating.
“I think that we have a very good chance of repeating this year, especially since we are a senior loaded team with a great deal of experience,” he said. “This season my staff and I decided that we had to push this team, and we did by stacking our schedule with 6A-7A and out-of-state teams. Last year we had 10 All-State wrestlers, and we believe that this year we could have more, along with outscoring last year’s total of 288 team points.”
Weigh-in starts at 10 a.m. Friday, followed by the opening ceremony at 1 p.m. First round and quarterfinal matches will run throughout the day. Saturday weigh-in begins at 7 a.m. followed by semifinal matches. Championship matches begin at 3:30 p.m.
Admission is $8 at the door. For more information, contact tournament coordinator Robin Fletcher at [email protected].
