Kell Wrestlers Split Home Opener

Before the three-way home-opening dual match with North Paulding and Osborne, Kell High School wrestlers anticipated North Paulding would give them the toughest time Wednesday night.

Opening with four consecutive pins against North Paulding, the Longhorns made relatively quick work of the Dallas school with a 45-21 win.

Marietta's Osborne proved the harder test. The much-improved Cardinals surprised Kell 42-34.

"We need to wrestle better," said Longhorn senior captain Matt McCrory, who notched pins in both his matches at 160 pounds and improved his season record to 10-2 with six pins. "We wrestled terrible against Osborne. We just gave up too many pins as a team."

Kell junior Michael Lattizori also collected a pair of pins Wednesday night in his 152-pound matches. He also was frustrated about losing to Osborne, which lost to North Paulding in its first match of the evening.

"We should've wrestled better than that," Lattizori said. "There's no excuse for wrestling like that."

Lattizori's father coaches the Longhorns and led them to a 17-7 record last year. As a coach he has notched more than 400 career wins. Although Steve Lattizori said the state's weight management program contributed to Kell forfeiting matches at 103, 130, 171 and 285 pounds, he pointed out the significant improvement of Osborne's wrestling program.

"I give them credit," he said. "They've come a long way. Their coach (Doug Hubscher) has been there two years, and they only forfeited one weight class."

Coach Lattizori said the state's weight management program "limits what you can do at dual meets (based on) when the kids can be at that weight because it recalibrates it off of what he weighs in at."

McCrory, Michael Lattizori, Jake Jensen (135 pounds), Alec Stringer (140) and Steven Summey (145) are expected to lead the Longhorns this season after each of them competed at the AAAAA state wrestling tournament in February. McCrory finished seventh in the state last season at 152 pounds with a record of 42-14 with 24 pins.

Kell freshman Cody Ashway may join the quintet at state after turning in two strong performances against North Paulding and Osborne. Ashway beat North Paulding's Dustin Tibbits 9-2 and pinned his Osborne rival, Eduardo Casteron, 27 seconds into the third period. He led 12-3 entering the final frame.

"I think the kid wasn't as strong as I thought," Ashway said of Casteron. "He was more tired than I thought."

Kell's wrestlers will compete in Stockbridge's Tiger Classic and River Ridge's Knights of the Round Table at River Ridge High tournaments Friday and Saturday. On Wednesday, they will travel to Sprayberry for matches against Sprayberry and Pope.

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