It was a tough day on the mats for the Fort Mill wrestling team by their own standards.
Fort Mill went 2-2 in the Milltown Duals Saturday to finish third in their own event. Ashley Ridge won the event going 4-0 on the day. Lexington was second with a 3-1 record, South Pointe was fourth going 1-3 in duals and Spartanburg finished fifth.
After the day, Fort Mill, who came into the event ranked fifth in 5A, is now 6-2 on the season overall.
“Ashley Ridge is good,” said Fort Mill head coach Chris Brock. “Lexington is good. A lot of swing matches we needed to win we lost. We didn’t have a solid day.”
Fort Mill opened the duals with Spartanburg and was able to get an easy 66-15 win. The Jackets went up 36-0 winning their first six matches, as Spartanburg ended up forfeiting six weight classes. Winning by forfeit was Aidan Eubanks (113), Bella Hoffman (120), Logan Shope (126), TJ Miller (160), Harrison Noll (170), and Jacob Nally (106).
The Jackets’ Gavin Mitcheson (132), Caleb Brock (138), Noah Kitchton (145), Ethan Coughenour (182) and Josh Smith (220) all won by pins against Spartanburg. Fort Mill did have to forfeit two weight classes at 195 and heavyweight, and while those didn’t hurt against Spartanburg, they did in the Jackets’ two losses.
Up next for Fort Mill was Ashley Ridge, who showed why they are ranked third in the state in 5A, as they tore through the Jackets winning 51-17. Ashley Ridge jumped out to a 20-0 lead after the first four matches, before Kitchton (145) won a 19-4 tech fall decision. Fort Mill then dropped two more matches, before Noll won with a first period pin. Flynn Hyde would win 6-5 at heavyweight and Eubanks (113) would get a 6-5 win as well for the Jackets.
Fort Mill then took on South Pointe and would have to claw to get back on top as the match was closer than expected as they squeezed out a 48-36 win. Fort Mill opened the match winning the first two weight classes with Shope (126) and Mitcheson (132) getting pins. South Pointe would then win at 138-pounds and the two teams would start trading pins. Kitchton (145) won, before a loss at 152-pounds by Fort Mill. The Jackets would get back-to-back wins by Miller (160) and Noll (170) by forfeit to go up 30-12, but then Fort Mill dropped four straight matches, two by forfeit to go down 36-30. Fort Mill would have to win the remaining three matches to get the win. Nally (106), Eubanks (113) and Hoffman (120) all got pins to put the Jackets over the top.
After a break, Fort Mill faced the 15th ranked 5A team in Lexington in their last dual of the day and didn’t favor well falling 52-24. Lexington led from the opening match and went up 22-0 as Fort Mill dropped the first four matches, some of which came as a surprise.
Noll (170) won by pin giving Fort Mill their first points in the dual, but then Lexington would win the next four matches to go up 46-6. Nally (106) and Eubanks (113) each got six-point wins, while Hoffman (120) won by a 5-3 decision and Shope (126) won 7-1 to make the dual much more respectable before Lexington closed things out in the final match. Only Noll (170) and Eubanks (113) went 4-0 on the day for Fort Mill.
Up next for Fort Mill heading into the Christmas break is the Union Duals, which will be a quad-dual, Wednesday at Union High School.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
