ANDERSON – The first day of the individual state wrestling tournament at the Anderson Civic Center didn’t go as planned for the nine local wrestlers in the tournament.
All nine wrestlers – four from Fort Mill, four from Nation Ford and one from Catawba Ridge –will start day two in the consolation bracket where the highest they would be able to finish would be third in their respective weight class.
In the 5A classification, Fort Mill had the best day of the three schools with three wrestlers getting to the semifinals. Aidan Eubanks, Noah Kitchton and Henry Debbout all won their quarterfinal matches to advance to the semifinals.
Eubanks (113) won in the quarterfinals beating White Knoll’s Dawson Prevatte with a first period pin. Kitchton (138) won by a 7-3 decision over Ashley Ridge’s Connor Wilson and Debbout (195) won with a second period pin over St. James’ Cooper Murphy. Logan Shope (120) was the only other Fort Mill wrestler and he fell in the quarterfinals by pinfall to Ashley Ridge’s Ben Singletary.
However, in the semifinals, all three Fort Mill wrestlers lost moving them to the consolation bracket. Eubanks fell in the third period to Cane Bay’s J.J. Peace, Kitchton fell in the third period as well to Summerville’s Brayton Killiri and Debbout fell in the second period to Chapin’s Patrick Brophy.
All four of Nation Ford’s wrestlers fell in their quarterfinal matches including top seeded Caden Brandenburg at 152-pounds. Brandenburg fell to Fort Dorchester’s Rayshawn Springs in the third period. At 126-pounds, Mitchell Ladamus lost by a major decision 11-1 to Summerville’s Ben Guilliam and at 170-pounds Isaac Nieves fell in the second period to Fort Dorchester’s Ethan Wilkerson. Clayton Rygol at 220-pounds also lost for Nation Ford to Ashley Ridge’s Christian Garland by an 8-2 decision.
In the 4A classification, Catawba Ridge had just one wrestler in Jarrett Eubanks who fell by second period pin to K.J. Holland of Hilton Head.
Wrestling for day two is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. in the Anderson Civic Center. Consolation semifinals are scheduled for 11 a.m. and consolation finals are scheduled for 1 p.m.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
