The Catawba Ridge Copperheads wrestling team was one weight class short of getting a big non-region win on Wednesday.
Catawba Ridge lost 41-34 to the Lugoff-Elgin Demons and fell to 7-3 on the season, a night after splitting a tri-match at Clover.
“We wrestled well,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Nick Hansen. “That is a good team. We are young. We are going to be good, it is just a matter of time. We got five freshman and five sophomores.”
On Jan. 7, the Copperheads opened their Region 3-5A schedule falling to Clover 54-23 and beating Northwestern 37-35
On Wednesday, the Copperheads had a rare home match against Lugoff-Elgin. The draw for the match started at 106-pounds. Jacob McClure started things off for Catawba Ridge picking up a 9-3 decision.
The Copperheads’ Taylon Winker (113) extended Catawba Ridge’s lead with a 11-6 decision to make it 6-0 early.
Lugoff-Elgin picked up their first win of the match with a pin at 120-pounds to tie the match at six.
The Demons took a 12-6 lead with a pin at 126-pounds and then a second period pin at 132-pounds to make it 18-6.
Lugoff-Elgin went up 23-6 with a tech fall at 138-points before Catawba Ridge rallies with a first period pin by Ethan Jones (144) and then a forfeit win by Cole Stukitz (150) to make it 23-18.
Clark Ostendorf (157) then pulled the Copperheads within one at 23-22 with a 13-3 major.
The Copperheads forfeited at 165-pounds and Lugoff-Elgin won at 175-pounds to go up by 13. The Demons clinched it at 190-pounds with a second period pin.
Catawba Ridge won the final two weight classes with Damien Ashcraft (215) and Alex Johnson (hwt.) getting second period pins.
Jan. 8 Roundup
The Catawba Ridge boys’ basketball team beat South Point in Belmont N.C. 51-49 on the road to improve to 8-8 overall on the season. Mark Caslaru led Catawba Ridge with 17 points in the win. The Lady Copperheads game against South Point was canceled.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
