Anyone got any details on the Elliot match? Sounded interesting!
What is the story on his opponent? What was his record and did he place last year at state?
Thanks.
Cotton's curse goes away as he win Newton title
By Matt Gorney
The Hutchinson News
mgorney@hutchnews.com
NEWTON - Hutchinson High's Romero Cotton had never taken top honors at the Newton Invitational Tournament of Champions until he defeated Wichita South's Mike Webb Saturday to win the 171-pound weight class.
"Coming in here, I kind of felt there was like a curse in the gym because I've never won in this gym," Cotton said. "I was pretty shaky about coming in here, but I feel pretty good now."
Cotton jumped out to an early lead, outscoring Webb 10-1 in the first round.
"Romero can be dominant," Hutch High coach Mike Garcia said.
He continued to dominate in the second round with another nine points, before a reversal gave him the 20-5 technical fall 10 seconds into the third round.
However, Cotton, a two-time individual state champion, was not pleased with his performance, saying he could have performed better.
"It wasn't my best match of the weekend," he said. "I missed a bunch of shots I should have got."
Garcia said Romero's past struggles at the tournament didn't carry over to this year.
"It's a tough tournament to win," Garcia said. "He came through and tech-falled everybody he wrestled.
The Salthawks had three wrestlers in championship matches on Saturday.
In addition to Cotton, Colby Crank and Ben Evans were both vying for the top spots in the 135-pound and 189-pound classes, respectively.
Just like Cotton, Crank also defeated a wrestler from Wichita South, pinning Bishop Price in overtime.
Crank was down 0-5 in the second before two reverses pulled the score to 4-6.
"I was a little worried at first," Crank said.
A penalty point from Price and a Crank escape tied the score 6-all, sending the match to overtime. Crank said he realized Price was becoming fatigued and took advantage of that to pin him for the win.
"I knew his feet (weren't) jumping around and moving like he was," he said. "So I could read his movements a lot better and his shots were really kind of poor."
Garcia said Crank stayed in good position and did what he needed to do to win.
"Going in, I think we knew the kid he was wrestling works hard," Garcia said. "Colby stayed in there and kind of wore things down a little bit."
Evans didn't fair as well, as he lost his final match on a 5-4 decision against Arkansas City's Scott Elliott.
After Evans led through the first two rounds, Elliott came back to tie the match in the third and then took the lead late in the third.
"He basically lost on that last take down," Garcia said. "Of course, he gave up a penalty point, too. Without that, he's in there."The Salthawks finished second as a team with 162.5 points. Bishop Carroll took first with 181 points.
"Coming into this thing, we had a goal just to be in the top five," Garcia said. "It's a tough tournament to win."
He also said that in past years, the Salthawks had struggled in their consolation matches - a problem that didn't rear its ugly head again in the year's tournament.
"The kids got together and wrestled just terrific through the consolations," he said. "(They) won a lot of close matches, got a lot of bonus points and we just had some kids wrestle well today."
In other tournament results, McPherson's Alex Whitehill won first place in the 215-pound weight class, with a 3-0 decision over Clay Center's Travis Blackwood.
The Bullpups finished 11th as a team with 95 points.
Also at the tournament was Dodge City, which finished 16th with 61.5 points and Newton finishing 18th with 57.5.
Buhler finished 20th with 40 points. Alex Juby led the Crusaders by taking fourth in the 171-pound weight class.
01/14/2007; 02:38:45 AM
