41st Annual WRAL Invitational Wrestling Tournament 12.22.12 Athens Drive High School, Raleigh NC. Photo by CHRIS BAIRD
Feb 27, 2013
The Greensboro Coliseum will be the site this weekend for one of the largest single high school sporting events in the Southeast.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association's annual state wrestling championships are scheduled for three days, starting Thursday evening and running all day Friday and Saturday, bringing together over 600 of the state's best prep grapplers for three days of competition. Almost 1,300 individual matches will be contested over the course of the event en route to crowning 56 different individual champions. That means there is one winner in each of the NCHSAA's 14 weight divisions and four different classifications.
For the fourth consecutive year, the 1-A classification will have its own individual weight class champions as the sport has continued to grow. This will also be the third year in a row the wrestling championships have been in Greensboro. Prior to that the event had a seven-year run at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem.
Wrestling will start at 5 p.m. on Thursday with the 4-A classification first round, followed later in the evening by first round matches in 2-A and 3-A. Those classes will begin wrestling again at 9 a.m. on Friday, with the 1-A starting at 2 p.m. since the field in that classification has fewer wrestlers.
The tournament will run through Saturday evening with the championship finals, starting at 5 p.m. This is the 26th year that the wrestling championships have been "classified"; prior to 1987, all wrestlers, regardless of the size of the school, competed for a single title.
The NCHSAA, with a strong tradition in wrestling, has been offering a championship in the sport since the 1930's.
Pinecrest broke Winston-Salem Parkland’s grasp on the tournament title with a championship last year although Parkland has earned seven consecutive state titles in two different classifications in dual team competition.
Orange captured the 3-A tournament title in 2012 while Trinity took the 2-A crown and West Wilkes has earned the last three 1-A crowns.
Earlier this month titles were decided in the NCHSAA dual team championships. Those dual team champs include Parkland (4-A), Fred T. Foard (3-A), Newton-Conover (2-A) and West Wilkes (1-A), who should also be in contention for top honors in Greensboro.
The host city sponsors for the wrestling championships include the Greensboro Sports Commission, the Greensboro Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Greensboro Sports Council.
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