By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

RICHMOND HILL, Ga. – The Thompson Warriors are following up a 2018 state championship season with an impressive start to the 2018-19 wrestling season and it got even better in a national tournament held in Richmond Hill, Georgia between Friday and Saturday, Dec. 14-15.

The Warriors ended up winning the St. Nick Invitational by a slim margin over host Richmond Hill High School. Thompson posted a point total of 266.5, which was 21.5 points higher than Richmond’s total of 245 in second place, while close to 100 points higher than third place.

Thompson ended up with 13 wrestlers finishing inside the top three of their respective weight class.

Starting with the 106-pound weight class, Yanni Vines was the first to pick up a championship in the event. In the first-place match, he won by technical fall to close out a 4-0 performance in the tournament.

In the 113-pound and 120-pound weight classes, Thompson had two third-place finishers in Cory Jones and James Latona, respectively.

Jones went 3-1 in his run losing only in the semifinals before bouncing back with a 6-2 decision in the third-place match.

Latona lost to his teammate Dylan Lesueur in the semifinals and went on to win two more matches, one by way of fall and one by a decision to take home third in his weight class.

After taking down his teammate, Lesueur went on to win a 15-4 major decision to claim first place in the 120-pound weight class.

The 126-pound division was another one where two Thompson wrestlers had to square off against each other with one finishing in third and the other taking home first.

Chandler Akin was able to take down Seth Gatlin in the semifinals with a technical fall. Akin went on to win the first-place match with a pin to claim 27. 5 points for the Warriors.

Gatlin went on to win his consolation semifinal match with a pin and the third place match with an 8-0 major decision.

In the 132-pound weight class, Emmanuel Oliver put together a dominant effort taking down three straight wrestlers with a pin to earn a spot in the championship match. He was able to bring home first place thanks to a 4-2 sudden victory in the first-place match to cap off a perfect run.

Gabe Hixenbaugh also had a strong performance in the 138-pound weight class. He used a pin and a forfeit to earn a spot in the semifinals before picking up two major decision wins to take home first.

In the 145-pound division, Nathan Roberts was able to finish in second after a tough 10-7 decision loss in the first-place match. He had gone 3-0 up to that point with two pins and a decision win.

Ashunti Perry also lost a tough 6-3 decision in the 170-pound first-place match, which caused him to finish in second as well.

In the 195-pound division, Alex Ward was able to get through his opponents with relative ease winning by way of pin in four consecutive matches to win first place.

In the same weight class, Jacob McPhearson lost his opening match with a 5-3 decision, but reeled off six consecutive matches to claim the third-place spot.

The final wrestler to claim a top-three spot was Isaac McAdams in the 220-pound weight class with a finish of second. He made it all the way to the championship match before losing a heartbreaking 2-1 decision to come up just short of first.