After years of trying to reach the mountain top, the Fort Mill High School wrestling team has been there for the past two seasons and doesn’t plan on going anywhere for a while.
The two-time defending 5A state champions, Fort Mill opens the 2024-2025 season hosting Lexington on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at home. The Jackets start the season ranked fifth in the state, despite being defending champions. That doesn’t matter to Fort Mill head coach Adam Marullo.
“A lot of teams have a lot of good guys coming back,” he said. “We have some work to do.”
New to 5A wrestling this year will be Eastside, eight-time defending 4A state champion, and Indian Land, who comes in ranked second in 5A Division II. Lugoff-Elgin and Chapin are also ranked higher than Fort Mill to start the season.
“Eastside is the team to beat right now,” Marullo said. “They are No. 1 and deservingly so. They have had a lot of success, but so have we.”
All things considered, Marullo said he likes Fort Mill’s chances again.
“I think we can win it again,” he said. “Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to get there. If I didn’t think we had a chance, I would be doing these kids a disservice. The challenge is getting the kids to believe.”
Fort Mill will participate in the Southern Slam at Eastside after opening the season and then also host the Kingsley Classic tournament. Towards the end of December they will travel to May River for a tournament.
Wrestling in Region 3-5A will continue to be hard this season with the likes of teams such as Rock Hill and Indian Land, as well as Clover and Catawba Ridge.
“The region is going to be tougher than ever this year,” Marullo said.
Fort Mill has four state placers coming back in Jacob Nally, Lincoln Greene, Luke Van Beynum, and Tucker Gibson. Both Gibson and Nally are seniors, while Greene and Van Beynum are juniors.
Marullo said the smaller weight classes will still be competitive and is probably the best part of their lineup. All four state qualifiers back are in the smaller weight classes between 106 and 132-pounds.
Nally starts the season with 114 career wins, while both Greene and Gibson can hit 100 wins this season depending on how things go for them.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
