By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Southern Alamance’s Luke White is heading to wrestling’s state tournament after becoming a regional champion.
The senior heavyweight won the Class 6-A East Regional, which was held Friday and Saturday at Union Pines in Cameron.
White recorded three pins, including in the third period of the title bout against Erwin Triton’s TaZion Williams, along with a decision.
White will compete Friday and Saturday in the state tournament at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro. He’ll be joined by others who were top-four finishers in regionals, with girls’ competition set for Thursday and Friday.
Southern senior Gabby Canup became Southern’s first girls’ state qualifier by taking third place at 152 pounds in the East Region.
Canup posted a 3-1 record in the regional, with a semifinal loss to regional champion Latia Williams of Scotland. Canup followed that defeat by defeating Swansboro’s Shya Shelly with a technical fall and then held off Fayetteville Sanford’s Ava Babich 1-0 in the third-place bout.
Back on the boys’ side, Southern’s Jace Rich, a two-time state qualifier, didn’t advance after going 3-2 at 157 pounds. Teammates Nathaniel McBee (150) and Colby Eplee (175) both went 2-2.
With five individual champions, Union Pines was the regional team champion. Williams didn’t have a regional entrant.
Class 5-A
Western Alamance had two boys’ runners-up in the East Regional at Seaforth. Southeast Alamance had three girls place second.
Omar Rushing, a 132-pounder, won twice by technical falls and once by decision before falling 13-4 to Currituck County’s Miller Menteer by 13-4 in the final.
Gavin Smith of Western placed second at 138, using a pin and two technical falls to reach the final where he lost via a first-period pin to Pikeville Aycock’s Zymir Best.
Eastern Alamance’s Elijah Watson was the runner-up at 126 pounds. Watson recorded three pins before losing via pin to Northside’s Nate Jones in the final.
Southeast Alamance’s Judah Robinson will return to the state tournament after a third-place regional finish at 106. Robinson received a first-round bye and then went 3-1.
Eastern 175-pounder Julian Jones won two matches with pins to reach the semifinals and then was pinned twice to be eliminated. That was a similar path taken by heavyweight teammate Alfonzo Gonzales, though one of his wins and one of his losses came by decisions. Eastern’s Jayden Batten also went 2-2 at 120 and didn’t place.
Southeast’s Carson Giannotti won his first two matches by decisions and then lost twice at 120. Heavyweight teammate Hunter Friskney had two pins but also lost twice by pins.
Western’s Christian Payton at 190 went 2-2 and didn’t place.
For the girls, Layorah Jamison (114), Katie Lloyd (126), and Samari Acevedo (145) were runners-up.
Western’s Toriana Murphy (120) heads to states after a third-place finish.
Dual team state playoffs
In Class 6-A last Wednesday, Southern Alamance defeated Asheville Roberson 44-28 in the first round and then fell 65-4 to top-seeded and host St. Stephens in the second round in Hickory. Rice was the only match winner for Southern vs. St. Stephens, which finished as the state runner-up Tuesday night.
In Class 5-A, Southeast opted out of the twice-delayed tournament because of scheduling concerns.
The four-team bracket at Croatan was contested last Thursday. It would have been a 400-mile roundtrip for the Stallions for a first-round meeting with Rockingham County, but Southeast principal Eric Yarbrough said arrangements were made for that trip.
Yarbrough and athletics director B.J. Condron said the biggest concerns for the Stallions was the date.
When the North Carolina High School Athletic Association revamped the schedule and, to some degree, the format following weather-related delays for playoffs that were originally supposed to end February 7, it listed the one-day first and second rounds for either February 10, 11, or 12. Croatan, as the host, went with the latter of those dates, but that meant it would be the day prior to the start of the East Regional for individuals at Seaforth.
When the Thursday date was set, Rockingham County and Southeast inquired about holding their clash on one of their campuses February 10 so only the winner would go to Croatan, but that proposal was nixed by the NCHSAA.
Yarbrough said when Rockingham County chose to opt out that Southeast soon followed. The biggest concern was the short turnaround time for team members competing in individual regionals, Yarbrough and Condron said.
Croatan ended up as state runner-up.
