FAYETTEVILLE -- Clayton senior Luke Ludke won the 132-pound championship and was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler at Feud in the Forest, a 17-team tournament held at Pine Forest High School on Saturday.
Ludke won three matches in the event - he pinned Shaquille Leach of Overhills at 3:35 and Keith McChristian of Wakefield at 3:35, then took a 5-1 decision over Pine Forest's Thomas Cheatham to capture the championship in his weight class.
He topped the list of six Comets who placed in the top four of their divisions, as Clayton (115.5 points) earned fifth place in the team standings, trailing only South Brunswick (168.5), South View (133), Havelock 9127) and Holly Springs (126.5).
Russell Thrasher won the 170-pound championship with three victories by decision - 6-1 over Ali Reid of Queens Grant, 6-3 over Darius Cox of Douglas Byrd and 4-2 over Luqman Green of South View.
Two other Comets reached the finals of their weight classes: Jarel Orr at 145 and Jacquan Ethridge at 152.
Orr tech-falled Corey Murphy of Pine Forest 19-3 and won a major decision, 13-0, over Diquan Anderson of Overhills, before falling 8-6 to LuWolf Sanderson of South Brunswick in the championship.
Ethridge pinned Kevin Garay of Havelock at 5:23 in his first match, then decisioned Paul Tant of Westover 14-3 before falling in the finals by pin (5:51) to Jon Wiley of South Brunswick.
Dylan Wheeler (126 pounds) and Christian Novak (182) finished fourth in their divisions.
Wheeler lost his first match by pinfall at 1:33 to Myles Jones of Holly Springs. He then decisioned Overhills' Dwayne Chaney 7-4 and won by default over Zack Von Voigt of South Brunswick before losing 7-0 to his first-round foe, Jones, in the consolation finals.
Novak pinned Jerome Dorsey of Westover at 3:27 in his first match, then fell 9-4 to Malik McDonald of South View. Novak then earned major decisions - 11-2 over Johnathon McCullen of Southern Lee and 15-4 over David Matheney of Overhills - before pinning Ivan Boyarskiy of Queens Grant at 1:55. Novak had to settle for fourth due to tourney stipulations that a wrestler can only wrestle five matches in one day.
Jhavonte Moon, competing at 138 pounds, went 3-2 for Clayton. He pinned Wakefield's Dedrick Harrington at 2:25 in the opening match, then lost 17-3 to to E.E. Smith's Demetrius McRae in the second round. Moon recovered from that loss and earned a pin at 1:00 over Elijah Perry of Middle Creek and a 9-7 overtime decision over Tyler Gonzalez of Overhills before falling 21-18 to Kaeleb Iannone of South View.
Chad Sprouse, wrestling at 160 pounds, went 0-2. Both of his defeats came by pinfall - at 1:22 to Yonathan Watson of Queens Grant and at 2:39 to Joseph Stevenson of Fayetteville 71st.
Jake Gray went 0-2 at 195 pounds. He lost a heartbreaker 11-9 in overtime to Byron Cousin of Douglas Byrd and then was pinned at 6:07 by C.J. Cooper of Holly Springs.
Eric Cruz won one of three matches at 220 pounds for the Comets. He was pinned at 1:49 by South View's Troy Cain, then came back to pin Demetrius McNeill of Douglas Byrd at 2:32. Criz lost by pin at 2:20 to Hector Valery of Holly Springs.
Clayton will compete in the Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference championshiptSaturday at West Johnston High School at 9 a.m.
