Poplar Bluff wrestlers bring home hammer as Gatlin Taylor, Lucas Robertson place first

CABOT, Ark. — Gatlin Taylor, Lucas Robertson and the Poplar Bluff wrestling team brought home a hammer Saturday while senior Quinten Bell earned a milestone victory.

Taylor and Robertson each won their weight class as the Mules placed second in a tournament that featured teams for Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas.

Bell earned his 100th career victory with a pin and finished third at 138 pounds, winning 4-1 in overtime. He was one of six Mules to place third.

Winners of each weight divisions received a mini sledge hammer while the team trophy for second place was a full-sized sledge hammer.

North DeSoto (La.) won the team title with 460 points while the Mules finished at 411 and Cabot (Ark.), the host, was third at 325.

While the Poplar Bluff boys were at the Bring the Hammer event, the girls wrestled at the Tough as Nails Noel Invitational in Rolla, Missouri.

The Mules finished fifth in the 15-team tournament as Demi Wisdom won her division while Alexis Rowland, Grace Kearbey and Katlyn Pickard placed second.

On Friday, the Poplar Bluff boys lost to host Cabot 52-21 and beat Bryant (Ark.) 66-12 in a dual.

"Quite frankly we didn't wrestle very well," Mules coach Kelton Thompson said of Friday's match. "Challenged the guys to come out and get after it after Cabot physically threw us around a little bit.

"Challenged them to be more aggressive (Saturday) and they answered the call."

Taylor won at 106 pounds with three pins and a 7-2 decision. In the championship match, he pinned Oliver Lorenz of Azie (Texas) at 1 minute, 42 seconds.

At 132 pounds, Robertson won a pair of decisions, 10-0 and 11-5, and pinned three opponents in under 30 seconds. In the final, he got a pin in 23 seconds to beat CJ Yocham of Searcy (Ark.).

Bell reached his 100th career win in his second match of the day, a pin in 50 seconds, and also had a pin and a 4-2 win before falling to a North DeSoto wrestler who placed fourth at state last season in Louisiana.

"Thought he wrestled him really tough, got a lot of good experience," Thompson said.

Poplar Bluff was assured a third-place finish at 195 pounds when teammates Desmond Howell and Austin Stoner met. Howell made his season debut at the tournament after needing to be weight certified, Thompson said.

Howell and Stoner each had three pins before facing off for third place when Howell earned a pin at the 1:51 mark.

"He came out and wrestled really well," Thompson said of Howell, and added that Stoner, "did a great job stepping into that spot."

Gavin Hicks placed third at 113 pounds with a 9-3 decision while his only loss was an 8-2 decision after winning 2-0 and earning a pin.

Justin Mitchell (160) beat a North DeSoto wrestler for third place with a pin at 1:18, his fourth pin of the day.

Davion Steele (170) was third with a pin at 3:15, his second, after winning 10-9 and 11-6 earlier in the day.

Gavyn Hays (220) got his third pin of the day to place third and also won 16-12 while heavyweight Nick Palma was fourth after earning a pair of pins earlier.

Riley Sater (182) also placed fourth with a 6-0 loss while senior Seth Barris (152) was fourth.

Dace Wisdom (145) placed fifth but one of his two pins was against a Cabot wrestler who beat him the previous night while Ben Colclasure (145) also placed fifth.

At Rolla, Wisdom had a pair of pins and a 5-1 decision to win at 166 pounds.

Rowland had a pair of pins and lost at the 3:57 mark to place second at 125 pounds. Kearbey won 6-0 but lost by fall while Pickard had a pair of pins and lost by fall to also place second.

BreAnn Thresher was third along with Paige Earls while McKayla Brown and Kierra Johnson placed fourth. Mia Osgood was fifth and Sophia Grace placed sixth for the Mules, who host Farmington on Tuesday in a match that starts at 6 p.m. at the Senior High Gym.