So So Eke-Spiff competed in the National Prep Wrestling Tournament this weekend at Lehigh University. When we arrived Thursday night I found out that So So was an "unseeded wrestler" and that he would have his work cut out for him as he had many seeded wrestlers in his "bracket path".
When we arrived to the wrestling site on Friday morning So So was eerily quiet (for those that teach or have taught him we know he is never quiet!). I chalked it up to nerves and did my best to calm him down. I let him know we were proud of him just having made it to this point as a second year wrestler.
In the first round So So silenced all the doubters (there were many in attendance) by defeating the 10th seed from San Antonio, Texas, 9 – 7. He earned this victory by wrestling intelligently and scoring four points in the last sixteen seconds of the match!
Moving into the Round of 16, So So was matched up against the 7th seed, an experienced wrestler from The Gliman School in Baltimore, MD. Once again, So So was able to shock the crowd and his opponent by pinning him with 4 seconds left in the second period.
After pulling off these upsets in the first two rounds, So So was the "Cinderella Story" of the tournament. In the Round of 8 he ran into the number 2 seed and lost to eventual runner up. From that point he wrestled his way back to being a victory away from Honorable Mention, Prep All American status but lost a heart breaker to another athlete from VA.
So So had the whole building jumping and created a lot of Randolph Macon Academy wrestling fans, from all over the country with his performance.