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Published Saturday, December 26, 2009 in Sports

Vikings enjoy holiday after winning Callaway Invitational

By Chris Goltermann

The Newnan Times-Herald

Santa didn't need to leave Northgate's wrestling team anything under the Christmas tree this year. The Vikings went out and took home plenty of hardware from this week's Callaway Invitational.

Northgate produced four individual champions en route to a 41-point tournament victory that may very well set the tone for next week's trip to the Fayette County Christmas Tournament.

Both the Vikings and East Coweta will be among at least 28 teams at the annual Fayette event after each came through with above average efforts this week. In addition to Northgate's tournament championship at Callaway, East Coweta finished third at the Santa Slam in South Forsyth.

The Vikings' effort during Wednesday's final day of the Callaway Invitational was impressive considering head coach Adrian Anderson was without three starters. But sophomore Braxtin Ward (103), freshman Tyler Askey (140), and seniors Kyle Hennen (145) and Chris Schenk (160) all came through by winning respective weight classes.

Northgate finished with 186 points, well ahead of Columbus (145 points) and Troup County (123 ). Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Hardaway (121), Spencer (111), LaGrange (94), Jordan (91), Pike County (90), Callaway (82) and Central-Carroll (70).

"We saw a lot of improvement this week," said Anderson. "When we saw people we faced earlier in the year who had won matches against us, we beat them the second time around just about every time. And it wasn't just the guys who placed."

In all, Northgate had nine of its 12 entries place in the top four of their weight classes. Senior Jeffrey Higgins took second at 152 pounds and senior Aric Anderson took third at 189 after he entered the tournament unseeded and won all but one match. Freshman Alex Anderson took fourth at 125 pounds as did Clayton Prudeaux (135). Meanwhile, freshman Nathan Hoffman stepped in for an ill Kyle DiGiulio at 119 pounds and took fourth.

"He did an outstanding job," said Anderson of Hoffman.

Northgate's four individual champions had little difficulty in the finals, though Ward faced Troup County Jeremy Thornton in the 103 finals in a rematch following a loss in the third-place match from the CRWA tournament. This time Ward took the upperhand, dominating the match and earning a second-period pin.

Askey picked up at least his third invitational title as Northgate's freshman phenom continued to shine. Hennen built a lead in his match and had little problem holding on against Jordan's Chandler Epps.

Schenk didn't let up in his match and forced a third-period pin to win at 160 pounds.

It was the type of effort Northgate hopes will carry on into next week's large tournament in Fayetteville, which could include as many as 32 schools. Even non-placers came through with strong efforts this week, including Rhys Rehberg, who went 2-2 at 215 pounds.

"He really looked good," said Anderson. "It's been a couple of weeks or so since we've had that kind of effort from him. I was just as pleased with some of our non-placers."

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