CR wrestlers win Battle at the Beach; Cape places second

The Cape wrestling team had a good Battle at the Beach tournament Dec. 28 and 29 at Indian River High School but didn’t deliver enough juice in the late rounds as the team placed second to Caesar Rodney 207-156 in the 20-team field.

The Vikings sent six grapplers to the semifinal round including Emerson Fajardo at 103 pounds, J.J. Currie 152, Austin Smith 160, Justin Lopez 170, Andre Flowers 182 and Thomas Ott 220.

Smith, Lopez and Ott advanced to the championship finals with only Lopez winning the title and the bracket placard that he got to take home.

Lopez beat Brandon Wolfe of Delcastle 18-6 in the final.

Smith lost 1-0 to Lou Fedele of Salesianum while Ott was caught and pinned at 1:30 by Jack Anderson of Malvern Prep. Anderson was 3-0 in the tournament, all first-period pins.

Aaron Mattioni at 195 wrestled back to claim third place. Flowers placed fourth, and Fajardo and J.J Currie placed fifth while Elliot Young at 138 and Nick Carroll at 285 finished seventh.

Cape will wrestle at Sussex Central Wednesday, Jan. 8.