NCHSAA 2A Dual Team State Championship

NCHSAA 2A Dual Team State Championship

Event Info
Croatan(East Regional Champion, 17-2) vs Piedmont(West Regional Champion, 37-0)These two teams are no stranger to each other. They have battled for the past two State Championships with Croatan winning both duals. The first year, Croatan won while visiting Piedmont and last year Croatan won at home. The Piedmont wrestling team had a six hour drive back home to do a lot of soul searching. They mad a vow one year ago after the loss that this would be their year. Last year, the key to victory for Croatan was getting pins and bonus points. This year, Piedmont got the bonus points they needed for the win via pins. This was the first championship for Piedmont in 25 years. On hand to witness the night were coaches and wrestlers from the 1987 State Championship team. There was even one wrestler who was on the 87 team whose son is currently on the Piedmont team and wrestled in the championship match on Saturday. His son, Bryce Braswell, normally wrestles 182 bumped up to 220 to wrestle Caleb Carpenter. Braswell got a key win for Piedmont, winning by a score of 3-1. Another amazing story is Piedmont wrestler Stephen Black. Stephen tore his ACL during the Hough tournament this year. The coaching staff looked ahead and knew that if they wanted to win a state championship they would need Stephen in the lineup. They talked to Stephen, his parents and Stephen said he would do it. Stephen wrestled the first round on Tuesday and then the coaches let him rest and sit out Thrusday's matches. Stephen went out Saturday with a heavily braced and taped knee. It was basically immobile. Stephen took a loss but only gave Croatan 4 team points rather than 5 or 6. The match featured several ranked wrestlers for both teams. Check out 145lbs, where Lucas Smith(PM) hits a beautiful lat drop just inside the circle and holds onto pin Brandon McCorkle and pretty much puts the dual out of reach. At 138, Steven Bunch and Sam Slater have a good battle with Bunch coming out on top, 7-6. At, 160, Matt Maske and Robert Benson had a good match and Maske comes out on top 9-6. Here is how the match went:182: #1 Parker Von Egidy (PM) FF (P 6 C 0)195: #2 Kyle Colburn (CRO) md. Patrick Helms 15-4 (P 6 C 4)220: #6 Bryce Braswell (PM) d. Caleb Carpenter 3-1 (P 9 C 4)285: #1 Kyle Eiss (PM) p. Jonathan Rigsby 1:36 (P 15 C 4)106: #3 Grayson Millis (CRO) tf. Wes Auret 23-8 (P 15 C10)113: #2 Alex Bray (CRO) md. #6 Kirby Haigler 21-8 (P 15 C 14120: Daylan Conner (PM) d. Dustin McCaw 6-4 (P 18 C 14)126: Brody McGrath (CRO) md. Stephen Black 12-0 (P 18 C 18)132: #8 Michael McLamb (PM) tf. Josh Paderick 16-0 (P 23 C 18138: #10 Steven Bunch (PM) d. Sam Slater 7-6 (P 26 C 18)145: #5 Lucas Smith (PM) p. Brandon McCorkle 3:35 (P 32 C 18)152: #3 Jon Mancini (CRO) tf. Dalton Graybill 15-0 (P 32 C 24160: #6 Matt Maske (PM) d. #8 Robert Benson 9-6 (P 35 C 24)170: #2 Dylan Nelson (PM) p. Andrew Colburn 3:07 (P 41 C 24)*Rankings are courtesy of Retrorankings.com
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