Two very amazing wrestlers, Kiaven Sullavan (The Cradle King) and Colton Pennington, have been with the Hillcrest Wrestling Program since their freshman year and have worked very hard to get the skill level they are at today.
On the night of December 6th, they faced off against Reavis and Shepard. Kiaven’s first match against Revais ended with a Tech Fall (Tech Fall – when one has 15 points above his or her opponent at any time in the match they will automatically be declared winner).
Kiaven achieved his Tech Fall in 3:27, a pretty good time. Sinc e each round is 2 minutes, it took him about a round and a half to claim his victory.
When asked how he felt about his victory and if he could have done anything better Kiaven states “nawl, not inside the match but off the mat yeah cause my body feels weak.” Although he says he felt weak he looked the farthest from it during the match. He dominated his opponent the entire time, never being put on his back.
In true Cradle King fashion he attempted to cradle his opponent twice but neither ended in a Fall (Fall – the technical term for a pin) as his opponent was able to get free, but in the end Kiaven still won. That was The Cradle King’s only match for the night.
Moving on to our next power house wrestler, Colton Pennington: he had two very grueling matches first against Reavis. His match ending in about 2 minutes, it was quite a struggle from both sides. Both young men were quite strong but you could see hesitation in Pennington’s opponent and Pennington took advantage of that, so much so that at one point his headgear fell off from the work he was putting in. Pennington did come out with a victory for this match.
His next match was against Shepard. His match was not an easy win, with his opponent giving quite a lot of push back. The Shepard wrestler ended up getting the first takedown, causing Pennington to fight to regain control which he eventually did when he got to his feet while his opponent still had his leg. But instead of ending up on his back, Pennington spun quickly causing his opponent to lose balance and end up on his back with Pennington on top with his opponent back on the mat, gaining himself a reversal and back points ( Reversal – When a wrestler who is on bottom gains the top position from their opponent) (Back Points – When you have someone on there back but don’t pin them you earn a point to add to your score).
Although this was impressive, sadly this was not the end of the match because the time for the first period ran out. Pennington’s opponent chose bottom position (Bottom position – when a wrestler has their hands and knees on the mat). Which was not the best choice because Pennington was determined to not let his opponent up at one point putting the boy in a cradle. Though the highlight of the match in my opinion was when Pennington put his opponent in a spladle.
A spladle is the cousin to the cradle (locking your head and leg together and rolling so that their opponent is on their back). In a spladle, one has a leg locked between their arm and their leg hooked around the back of their opponents and then they roll causing the opponent’s head and upper back to be in the mat with both legs open in the air.
Despite that amazing spladle, the match still was not over. Moving into the third period, Pennington got to choose how he wanted to start the match, and of course he chose top. Causing his opponent to fight for his life again,
This was a real fight of the match not only because it was the third period and both young men were tired, but also Pennington’s opponent was not going out without a fight which means had to keep his opponent in the mat the whole period if he could not pin him because it could jeopardize his win.
In the end, Pennington came out victorious. When asked how he felt about his victory and if he could have done anything better Pennington commented, “I’m tired and I wish I would have stayed in my stance, finished my shots, and landed that spladle” but ultimately he was satisfied with his win.
