sports@southwestimes.com
DUBLIN – After a disappointing loss in their opening match of the year against Christiansburg on Thursday, the Pulaski Middle combined wrestling team picked up their first match victory on Tuesday against Andrew Lewis, 119-69.
“We didn’t wrestle really well against Christiansburg,” said coach Joe Levine. “We came out tonight and challenged them. I knew that Andrew Lewis had beaten Christiansburg. We were mentally ready to take on another challenged and I challenged them to and they brought it out today. They showed that they have learned something over the last four weeks and they’ve been working really hard. This was a good reward for all the hard work. I was surprised that we did as well as we did because they are such a strong team. The kids have a lot of pride and a lot of heart and they showed it here tonight that they’ve actually learned something.”
Two of the more impressive performances came from sixth graders Gage Levine and Elliott Pedigo. Pedigo, who is a former member of the Virginia Challenge (VAC) and travels around the nation to compete on the mat, won impressively by pin at the 105 lbs weight limit.
Gage Levine, who a former elementary state champion, also picked up a pinfall victory in the match on Tuesday. Sixth grader Logan Smith, who was second in the state last year at 112 lbs, lost a close, hard fought match to an eighth grader, which was also impressive.
Overall though, coach Levine wasn’t impressed with just one individual single wrestler on his team, but was proud of the team effort that was put forth to pick up the win.
“I don’t have one individual that I can actually say ‘wow I was surprised they did that’ because we had some really nice matches,” Levine said. “Even in the ones we weren’t successful in, we had some good matches. They didn’t match up with our 80 lb kids, but those two kids brought it out and went into overtime and sudden death. It turned out to be a really good match. “
Despite the victory against Andrew Lewis, coach Levine sees a few points that he needs to work on with his team before their next meet on December 1 against Carroll County on the road.
“We have a little intensity issue to work out,” Levin said. “We seem to be a little confused with some of our positioning and where we need to be in pinning combinations. We just need to be more aggressive and better on our feet. We got taken down too many times tonight. Those are things to go back and concentrate on. We work hard on those things every day, but we’ve got to keep reminding our sixth through eighth graders and try to keep it as fun as possible, while working as hard as we are.”
(11-25-09)
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