Southside wrestler Thai Ta capped an outstanding season with an individual state title.

Ta won the championship in the 106 weight class during the finals of Saturday’s 6A/7A state high school wrestling tournament held in Little Rock at the Jack Stephens Center on the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus.

In the title match of the 106, Ta picked up an 8-6 decision against Springdale junior Isaac Ponce. The top seed in the weight class, Ta finished his season at 34-4.

“Thai had an awesome weekend going 4-0, with an 8-6 decision over Ponce,” Southside wrestling coach Shawn Hamilton said. “It was his dedication to work year-round and do whatever it took to get better (which helped Ta earn the state title).”

Ta won each of his first three matches at state via pinfall. His first match took 29 seconds, and then went two minutes in his second match before getting a fall at 1:23 to advance to the semifinals.

In the semifinals, Ta got a 6-2 decision against Searcy’s Cory Pope to make it to the title match.

Greenwood had two wrestlers finish as the state runner-up in their respective classes.

Freshman Ty Moose got second in the 120 as he was defeated by another freshman, Bentonville West’s Jacob Adams, who finished his first season with a perfect 17-0 record. Adams got a 7-2 decision.

“Adams is the real deal; he’s a high school All-American,” Greenwood coach John Kincade said. “But, I am very proud of (Moose’s) effort. Being a freshman, Ty will be a force to reckon with, especially since we are dropping down to a new classification of 5A.”

Moose, who finished his season at 42-5, began his first state tournament by getting two pinfalls to advance to the semifinals, where he defeated Springdale Har-Ber’s Brendan Davis in a major decision, 9-0.

Greenwood sophomore Colton Tuck, meanwhile, entered the 132 as the fifth seed but made a strong run to the finals before falling to Bentonville West senior Stephen Fox in a fall at 5:35.

“Colton may have ended up with a concussion after his match with Stephen Fox, who won state two years ago and was the state runner-up last year,” Kincade said. “I thought (the Bulldogs) really wrestled tough. ... We are a very young team; we started one senior, two juniors and the rest freshmen and sophomores.”

Tuck, who finished the season 37-10, won his first match with an 8-3 decision and then got a pinfall at 3:31 to reach the semifinals. There, he knocked off the top seed, Springdale’s Logan Walton, with a 6-2 decision to reach the championship match.

Van Buren junior Mason Hayes, who was the state runner-up in the 120 last season, came in third in the 120. Hayes (35-9) was defeated by Adams in the semifinals, but came back to get third with a 4-2 decision against Springdale’s Thoper Runny.


“Didn’t do as well as I hoped; I think just being young and having some pretty tough draws didn’t help,” Van Buren coach John Petree said. “Five out of nine of our unseeded wrestlers had the number one or two seed their first match. Effort was good for the most part. ... The future definitely looks bright.”

Northside’s top finisher was senior Alec Phetchareun, who got fifth place in the 126. Phetchareun, who finished 31-17, won his final match for the Grizzlies with a major decision, 11-3, in the fifth-place match against Damon Morgavan of Mountain Home.

Southside wrestler Preston Halley, a sophomore, took fifth in the 152 by getting a fall in 1:51 against Bentonville West wrestler Connor Klein. Halley finished his season at 24-22.

Greenwood also had a sixth-place finisher, with Isaac Johnson in the 160. Johnson, a junior, went 35-18 on the season.

Bentonville took the team 6A/7A state championship, with Bentonville West finishing second. Greenwood was the top local team finisher as the Bulldogs placed 12th, while Southside came in 15th place.



