Using momentum from their third-round win, the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets beat the Eastside Eagles for the second consecutive year to win the Upper State Championship.
Hosting two rounds of matches on Saturday, Feb. 7, Fort Mill won 44-23 over Eastside to return to the state finals on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at White Knoll High School where they will wrestle for their fourth consecutive state title. They will face the Lugoff-Elgin Demons for the second consecutive year as they won the Lower State championship on Saturday as well.
“The guys really stepped up,” said Fort Mill head coach Adam Marullo. “We separated early from them. We are peaking at the right time.”
Fort Mill, which improved to 29-0 on the season, beat Lugoff-Elgin earlier in the year. Marullo feels he will see a different Demon squad in the finals.
“They are 100 percent a different team,” he said. “But we are healthy and the guys are doing the right things.”
The Upper State championship started at 113-pounds with Morrison Murphy picking up a first period pin for the Jackets. Luke Van Beynum picked up an even quicker pin in the first period for Fort Mill at 120-pounds.
Eastside jumped back into the match at 126-pounds with a first period pin.
Fort Mill’s Cole Wartinger (132) came back with a major decision at 14-0. Copper Van Beynum (138) came away with a big third period pin getting the win with just three seconds left in the match for the Jackets.
Fort Mill’s Jayden Nguyen (144) for a tech fall at 19-4 and Lincoln Greene (150) got a first period pin to put the Jackets up 33-6.
Eastside won at 157-pounds by decision, but needed the pin to really make up some ground.
Fort Mill’s Broden Mitcheson picked up a key 13-3 major at 165-pounds. That pushed the score to 37-9.
Eastside got a tech fall at 175-pounds, but Fort Mill locked it up with an 11-3 win by Maurice Lawrence at 190-pounds. The Jackets forfeited at 215-pounds before Lloyd Shope won 5-1 at heavyweight to close the winning out for Fort Mill.
In the third round, also held Saturday at Fort Mill, the Jackets jumped out to a quick start and rolled to a 39-27 win in the third round of the playoffs over the Greenwood Eagles.
Against Greenwood, the dual started at 106 with Peter Escudero getting a first period pin.
Brody Harris, in his first match back from injury, picked up a key 11-7 decision at 113-pounds and Luke Van Beynum (120) picked up a quick first period pin.
Grayson Wallen (126) went a little longer, but still got a win with a second period pin, as did Wartinger (132). Lincoln Marks (138) picked up a 7-6 decision after trailing for much of two periods to put the Jackets up 30-0.
Fort Mill dropped their first match at 144-pounds, but then bounced back at 150-pounds with Greene getting a 2-0 win. Trailing 9-6, Gabe Sipe (157) picked up a second period pin for the Jackets locking up the dual and making it 39-4.
Fort Mill started substituting some of their starters and dropped five weight classes, one by forfeit to make the score closer than it seemed.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
