Cary High School Logo
Feb 3, 2009
CHAPEL HILL — On adjacent mats Tuesday night at Chapel Hill High, the Cary and Green Hope wrestling teams were nearly identical through eight bouts of their respective matches in the first round of the NCHSAA 4-A dual team tournament.
Against Chapel Hill and East Wake, respectively, they both jumped ahead 31-9 when their 189 pounders pinned their opponents just seconds apart.
And then the similarities ceased.
The Imps rolled to a 61-9 win over Chapel Hill, while the Falcons sweated out an East Wake comeback and hung on for a 42-32 win. When Green Hope and Cary met in the second round, they couldn’t have been more dissimilar.
Other than two forfeits, Cary won all 12 matches contested and steamrolled the Falcons 59-12 to advance to Thursday’s regional semifinals. Cary will meet Leesville Road , while Riverside and Panther Creek will meet in the semifinal. The site for those matches will be determined by Wednesday morning.
“We wrestled some good matches,” said Cary coach Jerry Winterton. “I was proud of my guys. It was nice to get this day out of the way and get out of here early, get home and get some rest.”
While there was little drama in Chapel Hill, Cary made up for it in domination. The Imps won 24 of their 28 matches, and two their losses were forfeits. After losing their first two bouts to Chapel Hill, they won 19 in a row. With the two wins, Cary extended its dual match winning streak to 100. The Imps, who have won the last two dual team state championships, haven’t lost since the 2006 state final.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Winterton said. “If we hadn’t lost that match [in 2006], then we’d really be cooking. That’s pretty good. That’s nice.”
Cary (32-0) jumped out to a 35-0 lead after the first seven matches against Green Hope (18-3). Starting at 135 pounds, Cordale Risk pinned Sam Latham in 30 seconds. Ronnie Winterton, at 140, followed that by pinning Russel Kinne in 59 seconds, then David Alecio pinned Bryan Hickley in 1:56.
After Gabe Brotzman’s 20-3 technical fall at 152, Matt Colvard pinned Chris Garcia in 32 seconds at 160.
Green Hope’s Alex Chapla took down Cary’s Joshua Boozer early in the 171-pound match — Green Hope’s first takedown of the night — but Boozer escaped, then went on to a 6-4 decision.
Cary forfeited the 215-pound match before heavyweight Eloheim Palma clinched the win for the Imps. He pinned Dylan Macias in 10 seconds to put Cary up 41-6.
Though Cary had the match won, they wrestled out the remaining five bouts anyway, winning two more by pin and two by decision. The Imps forfeited the 125-pound match.
Though the season came to an undesirable end for Green Hope, Falcons coach Chip Bunn said that was irrelevant. At the start of the season, with only two starters back from last season’s regional runner-up squad, Bunn didn’t expect to even be in the playoffs this year
“We thought we’d maybe be .500,” Bunn said. “We were thinking 12-12. We lost nine seniors and we had three juniors not come back out. The kids far exceeded our expectations. Of course, Cary’s Cary. They’re always going to be tough.”
Through two matches, Chapel Hill (17-6) led 9-0. Over the next 12, Chapel Hill still had nine points, while the Imps wracked up 61 thanks to five pins, two decisions, one major decision and a forfeit.
Chapel Hill’s Josh Craig earned a 3-2 decision over Cary’s Risk at 130 pounds, then Corey Mock pinned Jacob Mitchell at 135 to give the Wildcats a 9-0 lead.
Ronnie Winterton got Cary on the board with a 6-4 decision at 140, and Alecio’s pin at 145 even the match, 9-9.
Brotzman then pinned Aaron Squires in 1:52 at 160, Colvard won a 19-8 major decision against Andrew Hertzberg, Chris Hare pinned Joey Dallke at 189 and Kevin Puente clinched the match for Cary with his 5-1 decision over Marvin Bonilla at 215.
Up 40-9, Cary had the match won already, but Palma and Creed wrestled their matches anyway, and both won by pin before Chapel Hill forfeited the 112-pound match.
“Cary’s a real tough draw to get right off the bat,” said Chapel Hill coach Wilson Diaz. “We tried to come up with a plan. Obviously, it didn’t work. I think 32 other teams can say that.”
Like Cary, Green Hope fell behind 9-0 after its first two matches of the first round. But the Falcons won the next six matches before the Warriors mounted their own comeback that fell just short.
After Sam Latham’s 6-5 decision at 140 pounds, and Will Yen’s 14-6 major decision at 145, the Falcons took a 13-9 lead after Stephen Brown pinned at 152. Brown’s pin kicked off four straight falls for the Falcons, as Chapla, Richard Yount and Nate Reynolds followed suit, giving Green Hope a 31-9 lead with six matches to go.
East Wake won the next five, two by pin, two by technical fall, to cut Green Hope’s lead to 36-32 and set up a winner-take-all match at 125.
Only thing was that East Wake didn’t have a 125-pounder to wrestle. The Warriors had to forfeit, giving Green Hope the 42-32 win.
“Both teams knew,” said East Wake coach Mike Kendall. “We’ve been in and out with having one [all season]. It would have been great for us. All year long, we’ve battled some type of issue, and 125 pounds was tough weight class to fill.”
Contact TIm Candon at 821-8697 or tcandon@wral.com.
This story is closed for comments.
