GREENSBORO — After almost 1,400 matches and three grueling days of competition, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state wrestling championships at the Greensboro Coliseum wrapped up Saturday night with the championship matches in all four classifications.
Individual weight class champions in 56 different divisions across the four classifications were crowned.
Winston-Salem Parkland won its seventh state tournament team title in two different classifications in the last eight years, and its fourth in the last five years at the 4-A level. Parkland and Fayetteville Jack Britt were one-two, just as they had been two weeks ago in the dual team championships as well as how they finished in the 2013 tournament.
Parkland rolled up 173 points to 114.5 for Britt, followed by Cary in third with 71 points. A total of 74 schools were represented in the 4-A tournament.
Parkland had five wrestlers in the championship finals and three of them earned titles, including Paton Jenkins at 106, Drew Turner at 113 and Thomas Rodriquez at 220.
High Point Central 285-pounder Adam Olsen was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler in the 4-A classification.
Eden Morehead built up a substantial lead in the team standings in the first two days, and with eight wrestlers still competing on Saturday maintained that margin. Morehead had 116 points to 69.5 for East Gaston. Orange, which had won the last two 3-A tournament championships, wound up in third with 63.5 points and Southern Nash was fourth with 57.
There were 80 3-A schools with wrestlers in the tournament.
Three Morehead wrestlers, Jordan Jones at 120, Mike Jones at 126 and Ben Bullins at 145, were in the championship matches with Bullins taking a state title. East Gaston’s Jacob Grigg, the 132-pound champion by winning his final in overtime, was voted the 3-A Most Outstanding Wrestler.
The other two classifications had their team championships decided by the slimmest of margins.
Thomasville captured the 2-A team title with 95.5 points to 95 for defending tournament champion Newport Croatan. Newton-Conover, the two-time dual team champion, was third with 90.5 and West Caldwell tallied 88 points. A total of 71 schools competed in the 2-A tournament.
Providence Grove’s Dalton Clark, the 145-pound champion, was the Most Outstanding Wrestler in the 2-A event.
One of the key battles in the 2-A finals in terms of the team title came at 113 pounds, when Grant Hall of Croatan beat Quahiygee Martin of Thomasville 2-0.
In the 1-A classification, three schools entered Saturday competition within six team points of one another—Mitchell, Robbinsville and Rosewood—and all three had three wrestlers apiece in the championship matches. But when it was over, Chatham Central had rallied to score 98.5 points, just ahead of Mitchell with 98 and Robbinsville with 94. Rosewood was fourth with 62.
A total of 34 schools qualified wrestlers to the 1-A tournament.
Chatham Central earned the team title by virtue of individual state championships by James Dagget at 126 pounds and Chris Jaeger at 138 pounds.
Zack Orr of Robbinsville, the state champ at 120, earned the second state crown of his prep career and was named the 1-A Most Outstanding Wrestler.
The 2-A, 3-A and 4-A competitors began wrestling on Thursday night, with the 1-A class starting on Friday afternoon since it had fewer wrestlers in the field.
This was the fifth consecutive year the event has been held at the Greensboro Coliseum. The host city sponsors for the wrestling championships included the Greensboro Sports Commission, the Greensboro Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Greensboro Sports Council. The NCHSAA has been offering a wrestling championship since 1931.
