Retherford cruises to 103-pound title
Line Mountain freshman Zain Retherford, top, controls Brad Farley of Bermudian Springs during their 103-pound championship match Saturday afternoon at the PIAA Class AA state tournament at the Giant Center in Hershey. Retherford completed his first season of varsity competition with a 40-1 record and, in the process, became the first freshman in school history to win a championship.
mike staugaitis/Staff Photos Line Mountain freshman Zain Retherford captured the school's 11th PIAA Class AA state championship on Saturday with a 6-2 decision over Brad Farley of Bermudian Springs in the 103-pound championship match.
HERSHEY - Things are liable to get Zainy around the PIAA Class AA state wrestling championships in the next few years, but that won't be funny for a lot of guys.
Line Mountain freshman Zain Retherford completed his first varsity season by marching through the state tournament as surely as Sherman marched through Georgia, winning the state 103-pound title Saturday at the Giant Center with a workmanlike 6-2 win in the finals over sophomore Brad Farley of Bermudian Springs.
Retherford completed his initial season with a 40-1 record, his only loss a 7-3 decision to Hempfield junior Austin Miller, who was in the AAA 103 final later Saturday night.
Retherford's win in the final over Farley (38-2) was almost anticlimactic after his semifinal win over defending state champ Nick Roberts of North Star, who was ranked first in the country by several publications, but Retherford was businesslike as usual and never missed a beat.
"We were going to watch a DVD (of Farley) last
night but Coach (head coach Mike Martz) couldn't get it to work," Retherford said. "But my dad had a camera there and took some video of him, so we watched that."
Watching that didn't help get Retherford ready for an initial takedown by Farley, which came off a spin by Retherford which he never finished. But Retherford didn't panic, and quickly got a reversal to tie the score.
"I got in bad position (on the shot) and he countered it. I knew I had to get the reversal to get my points back," said Retherford.
"That was Zain's only mistake of the match," said Martz, who coached his third state champion in three years. "He tried to spin too quickly before stabilizing his ankle. Other than that, he dominated the match."
Retherford took the lead by tilting Farley for two points in the second period, but neither he nor Martz were sure he had Farley in position long enough.
"I thought I had it at first, but when he didn't give it to me right away, I figured I didn't get it," Retherford said. "But then I looked at the clock and saw I had it."
"I thought he locked it in with criteria before the referee actually called it," Martz said. "It was close."
Retherford made it moot with another reversal to start the third period, then rode Farley out the rest of the way. He got a little high on Farley's shoulder a couple of times, but kept his legs locked up and was never in any serious trouble the rest of the way.
"This is something I've been dreaming about since I was six years old," said Retherford, who estimated he's been attending the state finals as a spectator since about that age.
Did he know he was good enough to win a title right away?
"I didn't know; I was hoping," he said.
Now, of course, Retherford will be a marked man for the next three years.
"I'm sure he'll be right back at it next week," said Martz.
"I'll go back to work pretty soon," he said. "The other guys will be starting to work trying to beat me."
That's a pretty serious attitude for a Zainy kind of fellow.
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