Published Wednesday, February 03, 2010 9:30 AM
Updated Wednesday, February 03, 2010 9:32 AM

 

Knight wrestlers dominant in playoff opener

Stratford’s wrestling team barely broke a sweat in whipping Hartsville in the opening round of the Class AAAA playoffs Monday.

Nathan Grinsteinner’s match at 145 pounds summed up the domination in a microcosm. He pinned his man in seven seconds to highlight the 66-18 win. The Knights also got a rash of forfeits at many of the 14 weight classes.

In all, the match lasted all of 13 minutes.

Next up for Stratford is Lexington, the region champion from Region 5-AAAA. A year ago, the two teams also met in the second round and Lexington won 37-26.

“I feel like we match up a little better with them this year,” Stratford coach Willie Nearhood said. “Last year at our strong points, where we got most of our points, their kids were just a little better. Where we normally got our points, we didn’t get any points.”

The Knights did get some controversy though. It loomed large in the outcome of the match.

“We had a kid that supposedly bit one of their wrestlers,” Nearhood said. “Still to this day I don’t think he bit him … it gave them six points and took three from us. It hurt us pretty bad. The kid had marks on him but I don’t think the marks were inflicted from a bite. We just had to live with it.”

If they were to beat Lexington, the Knights would most likely face top-ranked Fort Dorchester Monday.

Stratford hosted the match Monday because it was the second-place team out of the region behind Goose Creek.

Goose Creek advanced to the second round without breaking a sweat at all. Conway forfeited the match, putting the Gators in the second round to meet either Dutch Fork or Beaufort Wednesday.

The third round match is set for Monday.