The Catawba Ridge Copperheads wrestling team swept a tri-match Wednesday beating both the York Cougars and South Pointe Stallions to improve to 3-0 in Region 3-4A.
Catawba Ridge opened with a 47-24 win over York and then closed the night out with a 50-24 win over South Pointe. South Pointe also beat York 44-33 in their match that was sandwiched in between the two Copperhead matches.
“I think they did fantastic,” said Catawba Ridge head wrestling coach Nick Hansen. “The guys stepped up. Those were two tough teams.”
The Copperheads led the entire York match and only trailed once against South Pointe. In the York match, Catawba Ridge jumped out to a 20-0 lead with two pins and two major decisions. Alex Teel (120) started the first match off with a 15-2 major decision, followed by pins from Clark Ostendorf (126) and Levi Jones (132), before Jakob Kees got a 10-2 decision at 138-pounds.
York would sneak a win in there before Sean Barstad (152) won 6-1 and Jarrett Eubanks (160) got a second period pin to put the score at 29-6. Beau Nicoll (182) would get a 5-2 decision and Jacob Webster would get a second period pin at 195-pounds to make it 38-12 and clinch the match for the Copperheads.
Catawba Ridge’s Tony Atkins (hwt.) would get a second period pin and Keimarri Cannon (113) would win 9-6 to close out the match
Against South Pointe, the Stallions went up 3-0 after the first match at 132-pounds, but things got very serious quickly in the 138-pound match. A South Pointe wrestler was injured and had to be put on a backboard and taken to a hospital by paramedics after hurting his neck. The injury delayed the match by about 30 minutes. Catawba Ridge got the win in the match by medical forfeit and took a 6-3 lead.
Hansen talked to his guys about the injury trying to keep his team focused while paramedics attended to the Stallions’ wrestler.
“Unfortunately, things like this happen,” Hansen said. “I told them to just focus on what we do.”
Once the match restarted, Catawba Ridge won three consecutive weight classes to go up 23-3 as Jackson Rozelle (145) got a second period pin; Barstad (152) won 17-0 and Eubanks (160) got a second period pin.
South Pointe climbed back in the match winning two straight weight classes to make it 23-15. Zach Webster (195) would get a second period pin, before the Stallions would win two more matches to make it 29-24.
Brooklyn Stanley (106) would get a first period pin to start things rolling again for Catawba Ridge as they wouldn’t allow another point for South Pointe. Teel (113) clinched the win for the Copperheads with a second period pin, followed by a pin from Joshua Gets (120) and a 11-4 win from Ostendorf (126).
Catawba Ridge travels to Indian Land for another tri-match Thursday against the Warriors and Northwestern in hopes of clinching their second consecutive region title.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
