ANDERSON — The Lakelands area had a good number of wrestlers qualify for a chance to win an state title in the first day of the individual state championships Friday.
After a day of wrestling, 13 Lakelands wrestlers will wrestle in the state finals in each of their respective classes. Those include Alanise Ricardo, Angie Molina, Kennedi Washington, Bryce Seaborn, Cason Howle, Owen Sargent, all of Greenwood.
Briant Witherspoon, Frank Taylor, PJ Rushton and Kayden Payne of Ninety Six, Pat Baer and Andrew Stoltzfus of Dixie and Abbeville’s Gavin Calhoun will wrestle for state titles Saturday.
In the first round matches, there were some real good ones. None was better than Emerald’s Malachi Conway beating the No. 1 seed in the Class 3A113-pound weight class. Defending Class 2A/1A 157 state champ Ninety Six’s Taylor was on top of his game winning both of his matches, inning his first opponent and winning a tough second match. Witherspoon won his opening match by pin, and hen wrestled his heart out to win his second match 2-1 after being down 1-0 going into the third period at 132.
Rushton at 165 won both of his matches with a pin in his first and a 4-0 decision win over Griffin Buss from Bishop England in the second one. Max McGee from Ninety Six pinned Nicholas Musgrove from Timberland by pin in his opener.
Payne at 175 beat Zion Clark from Columbia 2-1 in his second match in one of the exciting matches of the night.
For Greenwood High School, no one dominates the mat more then two-time state and defending champ at 190 pounds, junior Howle. In his opener he won 16-0. He had little issues in his second match with Coleman Gross out of Lugoff-Elgin, winning by major decision 20-3 in the second period.
Greenwood’s Bryce Seaborn 157 won his first one by pin then beat Gabe Fulton from Bluffton in a hard-fought grapple 4-2. Dax Seaborn at 175 fell in his first match 5-4 in the first round.
Baer from Dixie at 190 won impressively over Nick Folk by pin in the second period of his second match.
February 24, 2024 | Index-Journal, The (Greenwood, SC) Author/Byline: ERIC BASS For the Index-Journal | Section: Sports