By Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor Columbia – The South Carolina High School League crowned its first ever girls wrestling state duals champion on Championship Saturday on February 8 at Dreher High School . And the winner was …? Rock Hill , which beat Greenwood 46-36. The first ever AAAAA Division I and AAAAA Division II champions were crowned as well. Carolina Forest beat Boiling Springs 42-31 to claim the DI crown, while Fort Mill edged Lugoff-Elgin 33-28 for the DII title. May River rallied from a 35-11 deficit to beat Laurens 36-35 for the AAAA championship, West-Oak won the AAA crown with a 58-12 triumph over Aynor , and Chester beat Buford 65-17 for the AA-Class A title. Girls: Rock Hill 46, Greenwood 36 Rock Hill head coach Cain Beard and his Bearcats had been waiting for the opportunity for a long time. This is something that the girls and I have been working toward for the last five years,” Beard said. “We started our girls program during the 2019-2020 season with six girls. It has grown tremendously over the course of the last few years. This season we had 16 girls on our roster. We have several girls coming from our middle schools so I am excited about the future of the program.” Winning matches for RH were Maggie Cogar at 130 pounds, Braylon Adams (135), Alyciah Thomas (145), Riley Faris (170), Brismar Velazquez (190), Kamyla Torres (100), Sirenity Davis (105) and Jenger Rhodes (120). Rock Hill has had singles champions before, but this is something different. “What makes this year different and even more special is that all of our girls got to be a part of the playoff run to win the first ever state dual team title,” said Beard of the 16-team tournament. “From our best girls to our least experienced, all of the girls got to feel what it is like to be the very best wrestling team in their state. That feeling will stay with them for the rest of their lives.” 5A Division 1: Carolina Forest 42, Boiling Springs 31 Carolina Forest finished with a 30-4 overall record in winning the first boys state title in any sport in school history. “It means the world to me,” Panthers head coach Matthew Perdue said. “We were the first ever boys team to win a state title for our school, so it was a big deal, not just for us, but for our whole school. It was on my bucket list so getting one early in my coaching career. was awesome. “We knew this year could be the one. We were returning all 14 starters from the previous year.” Winning matches for CF were Joseph Britt (106), Isaac Demedeiras (113), Calvin Grover (126), Amarius Johnson (138), Josh Brown (144), Preston Crone (150), Brody Bailey (157) and Marshall Deforest (165). 5A Division II: Fort Mill 33, Lugoff-Elgin 28 Fort Mill won its third straight state title with the triumph over Lugoff-Elgin. To get to that match though, the Yellow Jackets ended Eastside’s run of nine consecutive state titles in the semifinals. “Although beating Eastside was a major accomplishment, beating Lugoff Elgin for a third state championship was bigger for our program,” said FM head coach Adam Marullo. “ We knew that both matches would be a challenge, and I have the upmost respect for both coaches and programs. “There was concern about keeping the team focused after beating the 9-time defending champion Eastside. It was such a big win and our kids were so excited, I had to immediately remind them that beating Eastside wasn't our goal, winning another state championship was.” Ted Ernst (215), Jon DaSilva (285), Lucas Van Beynum (113), Cole Wartinger (120), Tucker Gibson (126), Lincoln Greene (138), Jayden Nguyen (144) and Vincent Damico (157) were victorious for FM. AAAA: May River 36, Laurens 35 May River won the final five matches to score 25 points and beat Laurens by a point for its first ever wrestling state title. Beau Gwynn won by technical fall at 285 for five points as did Stephano Caderlon at 106. Ryan Seman at 113 and Marcus Foulk at 120 both won by pins for six points apiece to cut the lead to 35-33. Liam Engblom won by decision at 126 for three points that gave MR the title. Other winners for May River were Danon White (132) and Josh Echeverria (190). AAA: West-Oak 58, Aynor 12 West-Oak won the first six matches for a 27-0 lea and never looked back as it won its fourth consecutive title. “Winning a state title is not something you take for granted,” said West-Oak head coach Derek Strobel. “Each one is special. Each team has to face different challenges that the other teams didn’t. It means a lot to this team to win it because they had to prove themselves. We lost a lot of seniors from last year that you just can’t replace. Our newer guys had to step in and make a name for themselves. “Winning four in a row is an amazing feat. something that hasn’t been done at West-Oak before. These guys really bought in to the system and trusted the coaches. Hopefully we can keep the streak going.” Picking up victories for West-Oak were Marcus Thaxton (144), Sy Strobel (150), John Canfield (157), Gatlin Greer (165), Wyatt Saxon (175), Gage Ballard (190), Gunner Mease (106), Luke McLane (113), Peyton Durham (120), Cason Loven (126) and A.J. DeLaCruz (132). AA-CLASS A: Chester 65, Buford 17 Having lost in the Upper State finals to West-Oak the last two seasons, Chester took advantage of West-Oak’s move to AAA to win its first ever wrestling state crown. “Winning the state title was the next step in our program,” said Cyclones head coach Dennis Jensen “We made the Upper State finals the last two years and lost to West Oak and returned all but two kids this season. It was a historic accomplishment for the school as this is only the second male team state title in the last 40-plus years.” Winning for Chester were Travis James (106), Eduardo De Paz (113), Andre Hall (120), Raheem Rambert (126), Jakobe Starks Wright (138), Omari Pendergrass (144), ZyTavious Whitlock (157, Darriyarn Baxley (165), Eris Steele (175, Zion Carson (190) and Jayren Holly (285).

May River's Andrew Johnson rushed for 1,158 yards and 16 TD's this season.

By Billy G. Baker Publisher  Moncks Corner —In AAAA of the SCHSL, the Westside (9-0) Rams finished the regular season undefeated and they are favored to defend the state title they won a year ago with a fourth quarter rally to defeat South Florence . The AAAA state title game will be played at South Carolina State University on Friday December, 13 at 7:30 p.m. While Westside has the horses to pull another state championship wagon in a future victory parade, “we” can’t rule out Daniel, as the spoiler if the two teams keep winning in the play-offs, when could meet at Westside on December, 6 for the upper state AAAA championship. After going a combined 8-14 in his first two seasons at Daniel back in 2016 and 2017, head Daniel coach Jeff Fruster , has said he was thankful that he was not fired at the time. What a great decision school officials made to retain him. Since 2018, under Coach Fruster, Daniel has a collective record of 82-5, including three state titles as they prepare to play host Dreher High this week in the first round of the AAAA play-offs. Daniel’s only loss was to AAAAA member JL Mann (28-23) early in the season. To date Daniel is 9-1 and they have defeated teams 496-153 at the end of the regular season. Daniel won the Region 2-AAAA title with a 6-0 record after beating Seneca 42-21 in the regular-season finale last week. Daniel was trailing 14-7 late in the first half before coming up with a pair of long touchdown passes in the final minute to take a 21-14 lead to the locker room. That started a run of 35 straight points. Quarterback Grayson Clary had a monster game, completing 19 of 27 passes for 374 yards and five touchdowns. Trey Wimbley had a big night, catching four passes for 157 yards and three touchdowns. Jason Bish had seven catches for 147 yards and the other two touchdown receptions. Clary’s performance put an exclamation point on what was a tremendous regular season for him. Heading into the Seneca contest, the sophomore had completed 120- of-162 passes for 1,847 yards and 26 touchdowns. That means he has 31 touchdown passes on the season when you add in his performance against the Bobcats. Bish had 29 catches for 481 yards and six scores while Wimbley had 21 receptions for 405 yards and five scores. Quint Cumbie had 30 catches for 354 yards and five scores, and Elijah Lipsey had 23 catches for 438 yards and six touchdowns. Clary had also rushed for 240 yards and five touchdowns. Tremaine Davis Jr. was the leading rusher with 332 yards and five scores on 29 carries. The Daniel defense is led by senior linebacker Spencer Conn and junior defensive end Dexter Johnson . Conn has a team high 78 tackles to go with nine tackles for loss. Johnson has a team 14 ½ TFLs among his 57 stops. Johnson is also the sack leader with 6 ½. Junior Bryson Freeman has 4 ½. Davis and Christian Chancellor Jr. led in interceptions with two apiece. They had both returned an interception for a touchdown as had Conn. When the Lions can’t get the ball in the end zone, they have pretty good opportunity to get some points. Placekicker Bruce Brown, a North-South pick , was 9- of -11 on field goal attempts with a long of 48 yards. He’s also made 48- of 49- PAT’s. extra points. Westside will host Lakewood this week in the first round of the play-offs. Woods, a South Carolina football commitment, was also chosen for the Shrine Bowl. After 8 games of the season Woods had completed 107-0f-164 passes for 2,045 yards and 24 TD’s. His top WR targets are fellow Shrine Bowl member Chamarryus Bomar who had 777 receiving yards on 77 catches and 11 TD’s after 8 games. The leading rusher for the Rams is senior Sharode Richardson with 650 net yards on 80 carries and 9 TD’s after 8 games. On defense the rams are very stout. They are led by junior MLB Jaxx Wilson (55 tackles) and senior OLB Jameson Wilson (50 tackles), Soph LB Malachi Peterson has also contributed (42 tackles, 1 TFL). MLB Jaydon Hall (5-10, 190) has 44 tackles and the sack leader is junior DT Kwon Simpkins with four. A favorite to win the lower state AAAA is ball control Hartsville (8-1-1) who is ranked third in the current HSSR AAAA ranking. The Red Foxes have out-scored teams 453-181 this season and they have a quality win over Dillon on their resume this season. Hartsville has pounded out 2,628 rushing yards on 348 carries. Their top three running backs are Hakeen Watters (119-1,053-17 TD’s) along with Kylif Miller (102-696). Dual threat QB EJ Smith has completed 66-0f-123 passes for 1,302 yards and as a rusher he has gained 535 yards on 78 carries and 9 TD’s. (Please see feature story on Hartsville on page 55 of this issue) South Pointe is also loaded with a lot of talent and they have state championship tradition on their resume as well.

May River QB Tanner Macy under center ready for the snap.

2024 May River Football Stand Outs