Featured Dual: Cocoa Beach thrills in-school crowd
Cocoa Beach senior Billy Day talks about the thrill of competing in front of students. (Turn sound on)
COCOA BEACH — The day after Cocoa Beach celebrated senior night, they put on a show for an in-school crowd in the school auditorium, beating rival Satellite on Friday afternoon 59-18.
With the mat up on stage, it seemed fitting that senior captain Billy Day would get things started for the Minutemen and he did so with a crowd-pleasing pin.
“Being a senior this year and often times wrestling at home not a lot of kids show up so it’s a really cool experience with just about the whole school showing up and supporting us,” Day said.
After the senior put the Minutemen ahead 6-0, he urged the crowd to get louder and they happily obliged.
“Billy was really excited for our first in-school dual and get out there for one last hurrah and show off,” Cocoa Beach coach Chris Kelly said.
Landon Fisher followed up with a major decision win at 157 pounds, before Cocoa Beach’s other senior, Elliot Neal, won by forfeit.
The Scorpions carved into the 18-0 lead with two wins by pin of their own.
Ryan Beirne (175) and Qushawn Mighty (190) each won their bouts with the maximum six points, but it was the closest Satellite would get.
Three straight forfeit wins for Cocoa Beach came next with Nathan Pond (215), Madden Fredenburg (285), and Duane Mallory (106) all winning unopposed.
Anthony Acquafredda (113) then won by a major decision, Adrian Day (120) by a technical fall and Isaak Starr (126) by injury default.
At 132, Wyatt Crouser continued the winning for Cocoa Beach with a major decision win to make the score 53-12.
Anthony Dicks (138) earned a pin for the third Scorpion win on the day and then Cocoa Beach’s Kealan Sieni finished the dual off with a win by fall and send home the crowd happy.
“Obviously we are not the big premier sport that everyone comes to,” Kelly said. “This gives them the opportunity to show off and I think it really builds the hype in our school so all of these kids that don’t know much about wrestling get to see and hopefully become interested in it.”
Cocoa Beach 59, Satellite 18
150: Billy Day (CB) p. Jake Kriesgman (S); 157: Landon Fisher (CB) maj. Wyatt Reed (S); 165: Elliot Neal (CB) by FF; 175: Ryan Beirne (S) p. Foxx Sharp (CB); 190: Qushawn Mighty (S) p. Ian Lopez (CB); 215: Nathan Pond (CB) by FF; 285: Madden Fredenburg (CB) by FF; 106: Duane Mallory (CB) by FF; 113: Anthony Acquafredda (CB) maj. Gabriel MacVittie (S) 11-2; 120: Adrian Day (CB) tech. Kai Bailey (S) 21-5; 126: Isaak Starr (CB) ID Alex Ruby (S); 132: Wyatt Crouser (CB) maj. Nolan West (S) 10-2; 138: Anthony Dicks (S) p. Marshall Williams-Nixon (CB); 144: Kealan Sieni (CB) p. Derek Marcus (S).
