BOILING SPRINGS – Seventeen wrestlers from the local high schools qualified for the 5A Division II individual state tournament next weekend in Florence.
The two-day state tournament is being held Feb. 21-22 at the Florence Civic Center. Each weight class will have a 16-man bracket, instead of an eight-man bracket as in years past.
In the Upper State qualifying tournament this weekend, Fort Mill had the most qualify with nine wrestlers. Catawba Ridge had five wrestlers and Nation Ford had three. The Jackets had the only Upper State champion between the three schools in heavyweight Jonathan DaSilva, who won all four of his matches by pin.
Fort Mill finished third overall in the tournament with 176.5 points. The tournament was won by Indian Land with 217 points.
Lincoln Greene finished second for Fort Mill at 138-pounds, as Fort Mill had two other wrestlers finish third in Luke Van Beynum (113) and Ted Ernst (175). Brody Harris (106) finished fifth for the Jackets and both Broden Mitcheson (157) and Grayson Wallen (126) finished seventh. Maurice Lawrence (190) and Krystian Villatoro (215) finished eighth.
Catawba Ridge finished 13th overall with 110.5 points. The Copperheads had two wrestlers finished second in Taylon Winker (113) and Alex Johnson (215) out of their five qualifiers. Jacob McClure (113), Cole Stukitz (150), and Archer Rozelle (157) all finished eighth.
Nation Ford had three wrestlers qualify for the state tournament including defending state champion Danny Gilstorf (144), with a fifth-place finish. Derek Bylone van Sandwyk (190) finished fourth for the Falcons and Camron Mayger (165) qualified with a seventh-place finish.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
