Thompson edges out Oak Mountain by less than a point, wins AHSAA 7A South Super Section

Published 10:46 am Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Dominic Latoya (left) helped lead the Thompson Warriors to a razor-thin victory in the 7A AHSAA South Super Section over Oak Mountain. (Contributed)

Dominic Latona (left) helped lead the Thompson Warriors to a razor-thin victory in the 7A AHSAA South Super Section over Oak Mountain. (Contributed)

By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Reporter

MONTGOMERY- The 7A AHSAA Super South Section wrestling tournament took place on Feb. 6 and 7, and saw the Thompson Warriors come out in first place of the 11-team field by an incredibly small margin of .5 points over the Oak Mountain Eagles by a final score of 209.5-209.

Thompson, which has been the perennial wrestling powerhouse in Alabama for the last five years, needed peak performances from every one of their wrestlers to squeak the tournament victory away from Oak Mountain.

The Warriors got first-place finish efforts from a number of athletes, including Gabe Hixenbaugh in the 106-pound division, and won the first-place match in a sudden victory over Alex Thomas of Oak Mountain. Cody Mealer in the 113-pound class, Dominic Latona in the 120-pound class, Trey Watson in the 145-pound class and TJ Rayam of the 285-pound class all finished in first in their respective weight classifications. Watson also defeated an Eagle wrestler in the first-place match, Hall Morton.

The Warriors also had four wrestlers finish in second place in their divisions, and defeated Oak Mountain in head-to-head bouts by a slim margin, 4-3.

One of the Eagle victories over the Warriors came via Michael John Harris, who was the only Oak Mountain wrestler to win his weight class on the day, defeating Jacob Megois of Thompson on his way to his 132-pound first-place finish.

Thompson was able to come away with the win on the day by having a larger pool of wrestlers finish in the top two than Oak Mountain. The Warriors had four top-place finishes to Oak Mountain’s one and four second-place finishes to Oak Mountain’s two.

Spain Park also competed in the 7A meet where they finished with 55.5 points, and was led by Leon Strong and Kevin McClure, as the Jaguars have been all season. Strong and McClure came in first place in the 152-pound and 220-pound weight classes, respectively. During the tournament, McClure set a Spain Park school record for career wins with 190 during his semi-final match.

The AHSAA wrestling championships will take place from Feb. 12-14 in Huntsville.