NEW YORK STATE DIVISION II WRESTLING: DESPITE LOSSES, SVEC'S DAVIS IMPRESSES (14 PHOTOS) (2019-02-22)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
ALBANY - His brief high school wrestling career may have ended with a pair of losses, but SVEC's Dell Davis dropped those matches at the 2019 NYSPHSAA Division II Wrestling Championships at the Times-Union Center here Friday.

There are a lot of wrestlers who go 0-2 at the state tournaments, but few of them are second-year seniors.  Davis is. He began wrestling just last year.

"What he's done in the past two years with not placing at all in the sectional tournament to winning the sectional tournament, and then coming here, it's definitely been an inspiration to teammates and to me," SVEC head coach Ernie Marilley said. "And we just had a guy come over here and say he's been an inspiration to him too.

Davis has become a role model to the youth at school as well. Marilley chuckled when he mentioned his students would rather talk about the accomplishments Davis has made rather than do their math homework.

His state tourney debut started with nearly four minutes of push-and-pull warfare against Millard Young from Akron.

Davis put Young on his feet in the second period and would eventually give up a takedown to fall behind, 3-0.

Then, Davis had a headgear problem. The attempted repair and replacement that followed took several minutes, giving Young, who appeared more gassed than Davis, time to rest.

Young would give up an escape to Davis early in the third period, then scored a takedown on the edge of he mat with 1:02 left to build a 5-1 advantage. Davis could only manage one more escape, losing 5-2.

His final match was also by fall to Brendan Covey of Whitehall in 5:46.

Covey dominated after scoring takedown with 32 second left in the first period and another with 30 seconds to go in the second period. He added an escape, takedown and two near-fall points before getting the pin.