Braves’ big guys on a roll
Up until the last few days the Absegami Braves’ 6-2 dual meet season has been driven by guys that, if behind the wheel, would have to move the seat all the way forward.
Gami has quite a murderers row from 106 to 138. The Three Freshmen (Owen Doyle, Christopher Eaton and Aiden Zeck) are 19-2 from 106 to 120. John Devlin is 5-2 at 126. Freshman Julian Rivera is 5-3 at 132 and Sean Cowan is 8-0 at 138. That’s a composite 37-7 won-lost record through the lower weights.
This past week the big guys got back in the driver’s seat. After a quick adjustment to get some legroom they took control. They won four bouts in a row to start a win over Cherokee and finished off the EHT win with five wins in a row. Of the nine bouts won in succession in the two duals the Braves big men grabbed bonus points in eight of them.
That’s Absegami wrestling.
Ray Weed (170), George Rhodes (182), Sahmir Brown (195) and Mikal Taylor (220) put up 18 straight points on the Chiefs after Gami dropped the opening bout at 160. The little guys still had their say in this one as Eaton, Zeck and Devlin put up a 15-0 run that also had a lot to do with the Braves’ eventual 36-33 win. Cowan put this one away with three bouts to go with a 6-0 win.
The EHT dual started at 106 but because of some forfeits and an EHT buzzsaw at 126 the Braves were still trailing 16-12 even after Rivera’s 17-2 win by technical fall and Cowan’s 14-1 major decision. After EHT swept the middleweights the Braves trailed the pesky Eagles 28-12 with bouts left.
What? Somebody call for help? Out of the way. Here comes the beef.
After a Weed forfeit win at 170, Rhodes, Brown, Taylor and heavyweight Adrian Martinez-Ruiz crushed the Birds with four straight pins.
Ka-Boom.
Four. Straight. Pins. Braves 42. Birds 28.
After eight duals the Braves are 25-6 from Weed at 170 to Taylor at 220. Rhodes is perfect at 7-0. Taylor has one loss, Weed two and Brown three. If you included the young, rapidly improving Martinez-Ruiz they are 27-8 straight through from 170 to 285.