High school wrestling: Falcons ranked third in 3A
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 24, 2023
- West’s Grayson Burleson pins Salisbury’s Emmanuel Gregory in the 220 class during the county wrestling tournament in December. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Staff report
CHINA GROVE — West Rowan’s wrestling team is 23-0 and ranked third in the state in 3A.
That’s a statewide 3A ranking, not a regional ranking as you see in the basketball RPIs. Fred T. Foard and Eastern Guilford are the teams ranked ahead of the Falcons.
West won Saturday’s South Piedmont Conference Tournament held at Carson, accumulating 253 points. Next were Central Cabarrus (157.5), Concord (104), Carson (92), East Rowan (89.5), South Rowan (56) and Northwest Cabarrus (48). Lake Norman Charter doesn’t compete in SPC wrestling.
West won half of the 14 weight classes. Three Falcons were runner-up. Two placed third and two placed fourth.
West tournament champions were Jathan Roby (106), Landon Spicer (126), Connor Misenheimer (152), Braxtyn Barger (182), Hunter Miller (195), Grayson Burleson (220) and Christian Hercules (285).
Oliver Perry (113), Kevin Obrein (132) and Jacob Perry (138) finished second. Mark Truman (120) and Adam Coughenour (150) took third. Bryan Taylor (145) and Lucas Watts (170) were fourth.
Carson got second-place finishes from Tristin Clawson (152), Trey Hill (195) and Deshawn Kluttz (220). Joseph Little, Parker Mills (132) and Christian Kluttz (138) placed third. Gabe Flaminio (113) was fourth.
East’s Christopher McDonald (106), Shayden Edwards 9145) and Noah Breen (170) finished second. The Mustangs got third-place finishes from Malachi Pope (152) and Jorell Samoa (195). Kaiden Baker (285) was fourth.
South had two champions, with Mateo Diaz Ruiz winning at 113 and Mason Kincaid taking the 170-pound class. South’s Peyton Hinson (120) and Aiden Carter (182) were fourth.
The other individual champs in the tournament were Northwest’s Gabriel Perry (120), Central Cabarrus’ undefeated Jackson Baglio (132) and Charleston Baglio (138) and Concord’s David Tierney (145) and Ethan Treadway (160).
Tierney (32-4) won a major decision against East’s Edwards (31-3) in the 145-pound final and was named Most Outstanding Wrestler.
The brackets for the dual team state playoffs will be released Thursday, with first and second round matches to be held on Saturday, Jan. 28. It’s not known yet whether West Rowan will host, as host teams are based on central location (for four teams) rather than record or ranking.
