By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
North Pulaski came home with two individual medals and Cabot and Beebe grabbed one each at the state wrestling tournament at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock on Saturday.
North Pulaski’s Jonathan Buzzitta pinned Gentry’s Barney Cheney at the 3:40 mark to win the 125-pound classification in the small school, 1A-5A division and the Falcons’ A.J. Stephens defeated Gentry’s Shawn Johnson by a 19-4 technical fall in the 171-pound class.
Beebe’s David Day, top seed in the 1A-5A 160-pound class, beat Valley View’s Kyle Adams 16-12 in the finals. Cabot 112-pounder Tyler Kurtz, wrestling in the large-school, 6A-7A division, defeated Searcy’s Devonte Miller on points, 13-12.
North Pulaski, last year’s state runner-up in the 1A-5A division, this year sent a team of 14 and four No. 1 seeds including Buzzitta, Stephens, 140-pounder Tony Mongno and 119-pounder Jacob McClain.
McClain beat Ashdown’s Cody Ford by technical fall, 16-0, in the third-place finals and Gentry’s Kolby Rankin beat Mongno 6-0 in the finals.
In other finals action, top seed Connor Frederick, of Little Rock Christian, pinned North Pulaski’s Mariah Mongno, the No. 2 seed, at the 2:40 mark for a victory in the 103-pound match. No. 1 seed Nicholas Kurfess, of Little Rock Christian, pinned
Beebe’s Al Sharp at the 1:30 mark for a victory in the 112-pound class.
In the 134-pound small-school final, top seed Andrea Johnson, of the Little Rock School for the Blind, pinned Beebe’s Mykel Bain at the 2:26 mark. Gentry’s Robert Henderson, top seed in the 189-pound class, outpointed North Pulaski’s Vinnie Osmun 4-1.
In the 6A-7A, 285-pound class, Brad Ball, of Rogers Heritage, beat Searcy’s Patrick Bingham 11-5.