The Surry Central wrestling team picked up two big wins Friday to improve to 7-3 overall and 5-0 in conference play.
Central, the two-time defending Western Piedmont 2A Conference Champions, will put their undefeated conference record on the line next week as the Eagles attempt to three-peat.
“I’m pretty happy with where we’re sitting right now,” said Eagles coach Stephen Priddy. “We’ve wrestled well to this point.”
Priddy wanted to test the 2021 Eagles squad early on in the season. The 2019-20 team won the conference championship, reached the Elite Eight of the 2020 Dual Team State Playoffs and sent four wrestlers to the State Championship − where team members brought home a gold and bronze medal.
The Eagles opened the season with meets against defending 2A state champion Fred T. Foard, 4A West Forsyth that has only lost one match all season (vs. Foard) and 4APinecrest that also only has one loss.
“We try to wrestle some pretty hard competition early just to gauge where we were at and see what we had,” Priddy said. “With COVID, you really didn’t know. We had some kids graduate early or decide not to wrestle this year, so we just had to put it all together and see what we had.”
The Eagles used their experience against the aforementioned powerhouses to prepare for conference play and the individual championships down the line. After facing those three teams, Surry Central won its seven other matches by considerable margins.
This includes Friday’s tri-meet against Walkertown and Ashe County, which served as Surry Central’s senior night. Seniors Sam Whitaker and Steven Campbell were honored before Friday’s meet.
Surry Central vs. Walkertown
The Wolfpack forfeited seven of the 14 total matches. The following Golden Eagles won via forfeit (weight class in parentheses): Landon Pack (113), Xavier Salazar (120), Cole Snow (126), Alex Kinton (138), Jeremiah Price (145), Jacob Price (152) and Enoch Lopez (220).
Surry Central won six of the remaining seven matches to pick up the win 75-6.
Carter Snow started things off with a first-period pin in the 106-pound match. Snow earned points for a takedown and near fall before pinning his opponent 48 seconds into the first period.
Central’s Miguel Gonzalez faced Walkertown’s Nate Murphy in the 132 match. Murphy pinned Gonzalez in the first period for the Wolfpack’s only win.
Only one of the matches against Walkertown lasted longer than one round. Spencer LeClair (160), Cole Butcher (182), Sam Whitaker (195) and Steven Campbell (285) all picked up first-period falls.
The remaining match saw Karson Crouse overcome a second-period deficit by scoring five unanswered points in the third period. Crouse won the 170 match by a score of 12-7.
The Eagles won the overall match 75-6.
Surry Central vs. Ashe County
After Ashe County dispatched of Walkertown 48-12, it was time for the Eagles to battle the Huskies.
Xavier Salazar trailed 0-2 out the gate in the 120 match, but scored 10 unanswered points for a decision victory. Adrian Gonzalez made it 10-0 Surry Central with a forfeit win at 126.
Central dropped both the 132 and 138 matches to go down 12-10, but followed with a big winning streak.
Jacob and Jeremiah Price, both undefeated on the season, picked up wins in the 145 and 152 matches. Jacob won via technical fall (16-0) and Jeremiah led 8-1 before pinning his opponent halfway through the second period.
Spencer LeClair kept his undefeated season alive with a late rally in the second period of the 160 match. LeClair trailed 4-1 in the first period then 6-2 in the second.
LeClair scored a takedown and near fall in the final 40 seconds of the second period to tie the score at 6-6. The Golden Eagle junior gained the lead for the first time with a third-period reversal before pinning his opponent with just over a minute left.
Despite a number of restarts in the 170 match, Karson Crouse went up 4-0 after first period. Crouse then pinned his opponent 20 seconds into second period (33-12)
Ashe County earned its third win of the match in the 182 match. This made the overall score 33-18.
Sam Whitaker followed with the biggest win of the night. Whitaker trailed the entire 195 match; he went down 5-0 after the first period, 8-0 after the second and was down 13-0 with less than a minute left in the third. With 21 seconds left in the third period, Whitaker executed a reversal worth two points to get on the board. This set the senior up to pin his opponent just three seconds later.
Fellow senior Steven Campbell got his second win of the evening with a second-period fall in the 220 match. Campbell sits at 10-0 on the season after Friday’s meet.
Central’s Enoch Lopez got the win in the 285 match, then Carter Snow and Landon Pack won via forfeit to give the Eagles the 63-18 win.
Surry Central takes on North Surry and North Forsyth on May 20 with the WPAC Championship on the line. North Surry is 5-0 in conference competition and North Forsyth is 2-3
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com