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Feb 6, 2009
CARY — Having promptly dispatched Leesville Road in Thursday’s East Regional semifinal, Jerry Winterton had ample time to watch the remainder of the other semifinal between Riverside and Panther Creek. What he saw left him “kind of scared.”
The Imps allayed those fears convincingly.
In the East Regional final against Riverside, Cary jumped out to a 16-0 lead after three matches and went on to win 43-26. The win represents Cary’s ninth straight regional championship, and the Imps (35-0) will appear in their ninth straight dual team state final on Saturday at Cary High. They will meet the West Regional champion, which will be determined on Friday.
“Watching Riverside and Panther Creek, I was kind of scared,” Winterton said. “Panther Creek is loaded, and Riverside did a really good job with them. I’m real impressed with my guys.”
Just as they were in the first two rounds on Monday, where Cary wrestlers won 24 of 28 matches, the Imps had their way with the opposition on Thursday. Of the 10 matches contested against Leesville Road (Cary forfeited three, Leesville one), Cary won six, including four by pin.
Of the 11 matches contested against Riverside (Cary forfeited two, Riveside one), Cary won seven: five pins, including two in the first period, Harrison Rosenbaum’s major decision at 119 and Ronnie Winterton’s decision at 140. In those two matches that went the full six minutes, neither of the Cary wrestlers was taken down, and they outscored their opponents a combined 15-4.
More importantly, however, was that in the matches Cary lost, the Imps didn’t lose big. Of the four the lost to Leesville, the Pride had two pins, a major decision and a decision. Riverside had two major decisions and two decisions. Cary’s Jacob Brotzman at 125 was nearly pinned at the end of the second period against Riverside’s Andrew Tyndall, but he avoided the fall, went the full six minutes and lost by a 24-11 major decision. Against Tryone Eatmon, the Pirates two-time state champion, Cary’s Chris Villari lost 22-8, but he also avoided a pin where Riverside expected one.
"We didn't wrestle a perfect match, and obviously we ever will and never have,” Walt Tolarchyk. “But we made some mistakes. I'm not saying we could beat them. They're better than we are right now, but we made mistakes where we could have scored more points. And I'm real proud of the kids. At the beginning of the year, if you would have told us we're going to end up 41-2, there's no way. And they worked real hard."
Cary’s Ben Creed staked the Imps to a quick 6-0 lead in the opening 103-pound match. Creed took down Howard Earl in 20 seconds, and pinned him a little more than a minute later.
C.J. Bean’s 112-pound match followed a near-identical path. Bean
After Rosenbaum’s major decision, Tyndall and Eatmon earned won back-to-back major decisions at 125 and 130, respectively, to cut Cary’s lead in half, 16-8.
Cary 135-pounder Cordale Risk nearly pinned Austin Wimbush at the end of the first and second periods, tallying three near falls and a 13-0 lead along the way before finally getting the fall with 49 seconds remaining in the match
Up 22-8 after six matches Winterton though the Imps clinched the win with Ronnie Winterton’s 5-2 decision at 140. Winterton scored a takedown a minute into the first period against Matt Conway and got a second one with 10 seconds remaining in the second to take a 4-1 lead into the third. Though he gave up a point for stalling, Winterton scored a late escape point to preserve the decision.
“After we won those first three, I was thinking, we’ve got Palma, we’ve got [Gabe] Brotzman., where are we going to pick up two more wins? When Ronnie won that match, it really turned everything around,” Jerry Winterton said.
David Alecio followed with an 8-2 decision at 145, then 152-pounder Gabe Brotzman, after building a 15-3 lead through two periods, pinned Tito Burch at 152 for a 31-11 lead with five bouts remaining.
After Riverside’s Shaquawn Grant won a tight match with Matt Colvard 11-8 and Cary forfeited 171, Riverside remained mathematically alive at 31-20 with three matches to go, including one against the undefeated and the country’s No. 1 heavyweight, Eloehim Palma. But Cary 189-pounder Chris Hare removed any possibility of a Riverside win when he pinned Darius Carrington in 1:43. The teams traded forfeits at 215 and heavyweight.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Winterton said. “But I don’t think it matters. They’re all fresh. These kids are all used to wrestling on a Thursday or Firday and turning around and wrestling on Saturday. So we’ll be fine. Whoever comes out of the West, I hope my guys are ready.”
With the regional semifinal against Cary beginning at heavyweight, Leesville Road coach Jason Wyss knew the Pride were going to start out in a hole.
Cary’s lineup boasts a pair of state champions in heavyweight Eloheim Palma and 103-pounder Ben Creed. The Pride got pinned in both matches, and after 112-pounder C.J. Bean also won by pin, Cary led 18-0 through the first three bouts, and used that as a springboard to a 39-37 win.
“It was tough. It wasn’t the start we were looking for,” Wyss said. “We were looking maybe to start in the middle weights and see if we could build some momentum. You start off 12 in the hole, and we tried our best and the kids fought and didn’t roll over, but still that’s a daunting task.”
While the final score was close, the match was not terribly so. Cary clinched the win in 10 bouts and led 39-13 before Leesville Road’s Holden O’Neal earned a pin at 160 and the Imps forfeited the final three matches.
Palma’s, Creed’s and Rosenbaum’s pins took all of a combined 97 seconds before Leesville got on the board. Trevor Kamens had a strong showing at 119, earning an 8-0 major decision over Harrison Rosenbaum.
After Cary’s Jacob Brotzman won a 7-1 decision over Mark Goodwin at 125, Leesville’s Kevin Boggs pinned Cary’s Chris Villari just before the end of the second period.
The Pride (28-8) forfeited the 140-pound match, then Patrick Tray earned a 14-8 decision over David Alecio at 145.
But Gabe Brotzman put the match out of reach at 152 when he pinned Kody Boggs 1:20 into their match.
“My guys were ready to wrestle,” said Wyss, whose team won the Cap 7 regular season title this season, won the league tournament for a fourth straight year and became the first team from its conference to get to the dual tournament third round in four years. “I think the team finished strong. You set lofty goals at the beginning of the year and hope to attain them. They exceeded my expectations.”
To get to the regional semifinal against Riverside, Panther Creek needed and earned wins its final three matches against New Bern in the second round earlier in the week.
A similar great escape wasn’t in the offing for the Catamounts on Thursday.
Riverside won the first two matches of the night and never relinquished the lead in its 33-31 win.
“We’re a third-year program, so to make it this far, with such a young program, I think, is unheard of,” said Panther Creek coach Jon Armfield. “In retrospect, you can’t be too disappointed. It was a very successful season, and I’m proud of all of them.”
Like the other regional semifinal, this one wasn’t as close as the final score suggests. After 189-pounder Darrius Carrington’s major decision gave the Pirates a 33-19 lead with two matches to go, Riverside forfeited the remaining two.
Matt Elliot’s pin at 112 cut Riverside’s early lead to 9-6, but the Pirates won three of the next four. Andrew Tyndall won an 8-3 major decision at 119, Tryone Eatmon needed just 45 seconds to pin Scott Gura and Matt Conway earned a 6-3 decision at 135.
Panther Creek (26-6) got to within three, 22-19, thanks to Joe Morrison’s 13-2 major decision at 130, Alex Branoff’s 8-3 decision at 135 and a Riverside forfeit at 145. But Riverside won the next two matches to seal it. Scott McGee had a 13-4 major decision, and Carrington earned a 14-5 major decision before the Pirates forfeited the last two bouts.
Contact Tim Candon at 821-8697 or tcandon@wral.com.
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