Arkansas Wrestle (All images via cbcmustangs.com)
Conway, Ark. – Having begun their season this past Saturday at the Little Rock Open, Central Baptist College wrestling gets into full swing this weekend in Iowa with the Grand View Open. This open will be the second of 15 competitions plus the season ending American Midwest Conference tournament in February.
“The Little Rock Open was a very good tournament,” said head coach Ken Prophete. “It wasn’t a very big field in terms of participants, but it was enough for us to see what we needed to get done this season. We had some solid wrestling, won some solid matches. It was a great opening for us to have three guys place.”
The three wrestlers that placed were all returners in Christian Richer at 165 pounds, Kishma Davis at 141 pounds and Alejandro Mas, the defending AMC Freshman of the Year, at 157 pounds. Other returners include Dewayne Jennings at 197 pounds, Joe Loredo at 125 pounds, Brian Mas at 149 pounds and Javon Cooper at 141 pounds along with Jacob Pacheco at heavyweight. “These guys provide a great foundation for us to build around,” added Prophete. “Because of that foundation, our newcomers gravitate toward this group and it makes us stronger.”
“We had a great preseason camp,” said Prophete. “The guys trained really well and the gains were there in terms of the weight room. Their conditioning got to the point it needed to be. This is a very focused team that I have for the first time in a long time. Everyone from the upperclassmen to the newcomers all understand there’s a goal in hand that we’re trying to accomplish as a team and as individuals.”
Those newcomers are Antwon Singleton, Mark Ward III, Raymond Murray, Endrick Theodore, Shayne Parris, Aiden Richey, Joel Soto, Marcus Garrett, Zideen Ruiz-Zartemi and Gregory Pierre-Louis. “The difference between this class and classes we’ve had in the past is that this class lacks experience, which is a good thing,” added Prophete. “It’s good because it means they gravitate to everything that I and my assistant, Coach (Peter) Acuna teach them because they don’t have many years of experience behind them. They wrestle tough. They wrestle with a lot of heart.”
Prophete added this about his schedule: “Grand View, where we wrestle this weekend, has had the top team in the nation for the last decade. We know that the competition there is what we need to see if we plan on doing anything in the postseason. This schedule was made, by design, to compete against those teams that we will see in the postseason. We created this schedule for guys that have aspirations for wrestling at nationals.”
When asked to comment about their standing in the American Midwest Conference, Prophete responded: “I’m very hopeful and I believe we have enough to be top-three in the conference. Possibly in the finals as a team because we have that talent. The title is up for grabs. There’s not one dominant team in our conference right now like there has been in the past because every program has leveled up. It just depends which wrestler shows up.”
To catch what wrestling does all season, be sure to like and follow @gocbcmustangs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
