Cyclones go 2-1 in wrestling

By Marvin Birchfield
STAR STAFF
mbirchfield@starhq.com

   The battle of the Border Wars at Elizabethton took place on Saturday, as the Cyclones had a positive outlook after going 2-1 during the event.
   Elizabethton was victorious in their pairing with Northwood, KY. in a 48-30 team final, and also a win of 54-27 over Lebanon, VA.
   The one team loss that Elizabethton encounter was against Mitchell Co., NC. who went 3-0 on the day as the one undefeated school.
   "We wrestled Mitchell Co. pretty close, for they beat us 44-36, but I was real happy with the way our kids wrestled today," said Elizabethton coach Bill Potter.
   Several of the Cyclones had good showings in their matches, as they were paired up with some of the toughest athletes at the high school level.
   "Cory Henson went undefeated today, and John Ross was down in weight class, for his only loss was to a North Carolina State champion 6-2," said Potter. "Justin Harmon stepped up and went 3-0 for us, and our kids responded well and did a good job for us today."
   The young guys put forth a nice effort for Elizabethton also with Zack Potter dropping tough losses to ranked opponents out of Virginia.
   "Even our young kids responded well, and Zack Potter had two hard-fought losses to guys who were ranked in the top six of both AA and AAA in the state of Virginia," said Coach Potter. "Jared Taylor did a good job for us for he wrestled tough."
   Mitch Cornett was impressive by winning all four of the matches he competed in, which fell well short of going the distance with the exception of one against a ranked opponent.
   "One other guy who stepped up and did a good job for us was Mitch Cornett, and I don't think he wrestled for much more than a period in almost all of his matches," said Coach Potter. "He wrestled a guy who was ranked third in the state of Kentucky and beat him in overtime."
   With the damper of the flu season wreaking havoc on several schools, the event was trimmed down from the twelve-team schedule to nine who participated.
   "We've had so much sickness and a couple of teams not show up who pulled out real late, and another team who just had a few participants," said Potter. "Lebanon, Va. was decimated by the flu and didn't have but eight kids with them, and Tennessee High had only six here."
   Even the Cyclones were feeling the strain of a sickened plagued team, as two were missing from last night and one who didn't wrestle in his last match due to becoming ill.
   "I ended up missing two more from last night 'till today, and one that got sick while he was here so he didn't wrestle his last match by throwing up and running a 102 fever," said Potter. "We got some wrestling in and with everything that has been going on with the flu, I was just happy to do that and I think the other coaches were also."
   Elizabethton's next event will be at home on Thursday, December 18, where they face both Morristown East and Morristown West.
   "We have some really good quality opponents coming in here, and we're going to go out and do what we can do against them, and maybe throw caution to wind. Some good things will happen for us," said Potter.