Black Diamonds celebrate Homecoming, Senior Night with dual wins over Heavener, Gore
The Sallisaw High School wrestlers celebrated a 2-for-1 on Tuesday night at Paul Post Field House as they first celebrated homecoming with a 78-6 win over the Heavener Wolves, then posted a 77-6 victory over the Gore Pirates to celebrate Senior Night.
In the win over Heavener, the Black Diamonds (7-1 in duals this season) got pinfall wins from Lucas McAllister at 113 pounds, Tilden Gates at 120, Morgan Duke at 126, Dawson Glover at 138, Briar James at 144, Cash Mayfield at 150, Alex Reed at 157, Bodie Adams at 175 and Hunter Smith at 215.
The Black Diamonds also got forfeited wins by Mylz Oft at 106 pounds, Jaxton Roth at 132, Brody Mills at 165 and Drew Simpson at 190.
The lone win for the Wolves on the night came in the heavyweight match where Jeremi Casteel pinned Tukker Flute in 1:52.
Prior to the dual, Adams, one of the two homecoming kings, crowned trainer Addy Orendorff homecoming queen, then Duke, the other homecoming king, gave the newly-crowned queen her flowers.
In the victory over Gore, it was much of the same — pinfall wins for the Black Diamonds.
Sallisaw got pinfalls from Gates at 120 pounds, Glover at 138, James at 144, Mills at 165, Adams at 175, Simpson at 190 and Smith at 215.
The Black Diamonds also got an 18-3 technical fall from McAllister at 113 pounds, while Oft (106 pounds), Duke (126), Roth (132), Mayfield (150) and Reed (157) all won by forfeits.
“I think we’re where we need to be,” Sallisaw coach Mark Smith said. “The big thing is we’re getting healthy. We’ve had some guys who have been banged up. Those injuries are starting to heal. You can kind of tell that by the way we’re wrestling. We’re getting healthy at the right time. We’re wrestling pretty well right now.”
Tuesday night’s strong showing came off a strong performance at the Maverick Conference Tournament last weekend in Fort Gibson, where the Black Diamonds won the team title for the second time in the last three years.
“We’ve got some momentum going,” Smith said. “We’re coming off a big tournament. We weren’t necessarily expected to win it. I don’t want to say we dominated it, but we controlled the tournament from the get-go. It was obvious that the best team won.”
The lone win for the Pirates (8-3) came at heavyweight as Kaydin McCartney pinned Flute in 1:15.
Gore coach Jake Constant knew coming into the dual that the match-ups did not favor his Pirates, but the main objective in his opinion he wanted to see was competing in all matches — which he believed he saw.
“We showed up and we competed,” Constant said. “We knew it was going to be a tall task coming into (Tuesday night’s dual with Sallisaw). We knew some of our better wrestlers matched up with some of their best. We were hoping to win some of those matches. Missing Devon Mannon and Jaydan Gates hurt our line-up. What I take away is we came in and competed. We wrestled to the best of our ability.”
The Black Diamonds will be idle until Feb. 14 when they will compete in the Class 4A Dual State Tournament at Tulsa Union High School for the third straight season.
“It’s a team sport, but it’s an individual sport as well,” Smith said. “I always say if you take care of yourself, the team will be just fine. That’s what it is all about. This is what we’ve worked hard for all year. I think you have to come in loose and have fun with this. You’ve done the work. We just need to go reward ourselves now. We’re a good team. We’re better than a lot of teams (who will be at dual state). We just need to go out and perform the way we can.”
The Pirates will be idle until they have their regular-season finale triangular with Heavener and a team to be named later — originally, the third team was to have been the Roland Rangers — at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Gore Event Center.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Vian’s home dual with Dewar was canceled Tuesday night and will not be rescheduled. The Wolverines will be idle until their Senior Night dual with Stilwell at 6 p.m. next Thursday at B.J. Traw Gymnasium.
