LEXINGTON —    Six members of the Raider wrestling squad competed in the state wrestling championships at the Kentucky Horse Park Arena on Saturday.  The McCreary Central contingent finished with an overall record of 10-12 in the double elimination event  and tallied 29.5 points which placed them 29th out of the 82 schools represented.

  Raider wrestlers won three of their six first round matches with Larry Sammons, Josh Phillips and Richard Parriman all advancing.  In the second round though only Phillips would advance as Sammons and Parriman had the misfortune of drawing extremely tough opponents.  Sammons was defeated by eventual 152 lb. state champion Stephan Myers of Campbell County who pinned each of his first four opponents and won the championship match 24-5.  Parriman’s second round opponent, Heiro Chamblee of Simon Kenton continued to advance to the 170 lb. championship match where he lost 6-3 to two time state champion J.J. Jude of Johnson Central.

  A loss in the championship bracket only eliminates a competitor from finishing first or second.  After the first loss a wrestler drops to the consolation bracket where they continue to battle to claim the third through eighth place finish.  Three Raider’s; Cody Stephens, Josh Phillips and Richard Parriman lost in the consolation  round match that would have guaranteed them a spot among the final eight.

  Stephens and Parriman would each finish with records of 3-2 for the event while Phillips and Sammons would end up 2-2.  D.J. Parriman and Cole Jones ended at 0-2.

  The tournament consists of 14 weight classes with each of the 8 regions sending their top four qualifiers in each class for a 32 man double elimination bracket in each of the 14 weight classes for a total of 448 competitors.  A school could only qualify one wrestler per weight class to the event.  Only one school, Louisville St. Xavier had a wrestler qualify in every class.  Of the 28 teams that finished higher than McCreary Central 23 of them had more than the six competitors that McCreary sent and only one of them, Dixie Heights had less wrestlers representing them (4) than the Raiders did.  The other four of the 28 above McCreary also sent six wrestlers.

  Following is a state tournament summary of each wrestler.

Cody Stephens  (3-2)       sophomore      106 lb.

  Stephens opened the action for McCreary with a bit of a tough draw in Lexington Lafayette’s Luke Rearic who came into the contest with the number three ranking in the state.  Stephens battled to a 4-4 tie after the end  of the first two minute period but then fell behind 7-4 at the start of the third and final one.  A reversal brought him to within a point at 7-6 but Rearic would add three points in the final ten seconds to down Stephens 10-6.  Rearic would go on to win his next three matches before losing 7-4 in the championship bout.

  Stephens next faced and easily knocked off Alex Lee of Meade County by a 16-1 score.  Following that he took down Louisville Trinity’s Danten Rice with a pin just nine seconds into the second period and Owensboro Apollo’s Tyler Ward with a pin just thirteen seconds into the second period.  Stephens would fall in the next match however as Kyle Edlin of Larue County eliminated him 10-4 just one win short of a top eight finish.

Josh Phillips     (2-2)       senior          145 lb.

  Phillips opened with a strong showing against Lexington Tates Creek’s Marshall Aiken.  After falling behind 8-2 early in the second period Phillips cut it to 8-6 starting the third, rallied to take a 12-10 lead and then got a pin with just :17 left in the match.  

  In the second round Phillips again rallied, this time after falling behind 6-0 to North Oldham’s Mitch Rusch.  He would end up scoring the next 13 points while not getting scored upon the rest of the match in the 13-6 win that advanced him to the quarterfinals of the championship bracket.

  Phillips run would end there though as he next met up with Simon Kenton’s Kevin Cooper who would go on to win the state championship.  Cooper beat Phillips with a pin midway through the second round.  Phillips’ loss to Cooper knocked him out of at least a top six finish and left him needing a consolation round win just to get back onto the final eight.  That win would not come though as Caldwell County’s Kegan Agnew pinned Phillips with just :34 seconds remaining in the match.

Larry Sammons (2-2)      senior           152 lb.

  Sammons took little time to earn a first round win as he took down Louisville Trinity’s Ricky Caicedo with a pin just 1:08 into the match.  Sammons then found the road got substantially tougher as he met up with Campbell County’s Stephan Myers who would pin Sammons  with 1:19 to go in the first Period on his way to five straight win and a state championship.

  Sammons would pick up a win in the consolation bracket with another quick pin of Oldham County’s Derek Kopecky just :51 seconds into the match.  Sammons would fall though in the next bout in an 8-1 decision to Central Hardin’s Nick Watts.

 D.J. Parriman      (0-2)        junior      160 lb.

  Parriman  opened up against Louisville St. Xavier’s Brandon Pleger who jumped to a 4-1 lead after the first period, led 6-3 after the second and held a 10-3 lead last in the match.  Parriman then rolled into position to possibly steal the win with a pin in the final seconds but Pleger was able to remain in a hold to keep him from the pin until the final second ticked away.

  In Parriman’s second bout he fell with a pin just :12 second before the end of the second period to Louisville’s Eastern’s Craig Lucas.

 Richard Parriman  (3-2)     senior       170 lb.

   The elder Parrmiman of the Raider wrestlers opened with a come from behind win over Central Hardin’s Cody Floyd.  Parriman fell behind 6-3 after the first period and still trailed 8-3 as the final one began.  He then rallied to even the score at 8-8 with a take down with just eight seconds remaining.  He was then awarded two additional points after the final horn had sounded to give him a 10-8 victory.   Next up was Simon Kenton’s Hiero Chamblee who would end up as the state runner up.  Parriman battled Chamblee to an 8-8 tie after the first period but then fell behind 13-8 after the second.  He would pull within 13-10 early in the third but then gave up four points.  Two more points late in the match were not enough to change the outcome though as he fell 17-12 to drop to the consolation round.

  Once in the consolation bracket Parriman made quick work of Louisville Male’s Austin Gurrero with a pin just :34 into the match.  He then advanced with another pin, this time over Calloway County’s Charlie Courtney twenty seconds into the third period.  Parriman‘s tournament then came to an end

Cole Jones   (0-2)       senior         195 lb.

  Jones opened against  Meade County’s Alex Hogan and the two were tied at 2-2 after the first period.  Hogan would go ahead with three points in the second and that would be the difference in the match as his 5-2 lead ended up being a 7-4 win over Jones.

  The Raider senior would then fall in a similar match with Louisville Central’s Cormel Floyd who took another three point decision over Jones this time by an 8-5 score.