S.C. HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE WRESTLING FINALS

The Eagles’ Nest was the site of the 2019 S.C. High School League wrestling championship.

Gilbert High School was making its first-ever championship appearance in Class 3A, while River Bluff was seeking its 2nd title in 3 years in Class 5A.

Both teams ran into formidable opponents, however, and were content with carrying away the state runner-up trophies at Airport High School.

Indian Land 44, Gilbert 12

The road to the state championship was a near smooth ride of dominance displayed by the Gilbert wrestling team.

Things got rough, however, upon their arrival as the Indians ran into an equally dominant “tribe” in Indian Land also appearing in the state final for the first time.

The Warriors came away with a 44-12 victory to claim the Class 3A title.

The visiting stands were a sea of red heavily in support of Gilbert. They were loud and encouraged early after a pinfall win by Grayson Keisler at 182 pounds in the opening match put the Indians ahead 6-0.

The host team Warriors and their equally enthused fanbase quickly took over the match. The more experienced Indian Land won the next 8 matches to take a 31-6 advantage.

Eric Heydenreich ended the run with a 7-1 decision win over Indian Land’s Foster Lambert. The momentum was short-lived as the Warriors won 3 of the last four matches to claim the trophy.

Gilbert’s last win in the match came in dramatic fashion at 160 pounds by Tony Price. Trailing Phillip Padget with time expiring, Price managed a take-down to force an extra period tied at 3-3. He proceeded to get another take-down to win 5-3.

Despite finishing runner-up, Gilbert head coach Mitch Hudson was more than proud of how far his young program has progressed in 2 years. With 21 athletes coming back, the program can only continue to improve.

“There were a lot of toss up matches,” he said. “We wrestled 11 matches for 6 full matches. They just got the best of us. They’re a really good team. They got better positions. You’re talking about a team that’s obviously has experience (against) a team that 2 years ago that wasn’t in this position at all.

“We competed our tails off. They wrestled as hard as they could and they kept fighting to the last match. We’ll learn from it. We’ll get better. We’ll grow. We’re happy we’re here, but not satisfied.”

HIllcrest 41, River Bluff 30

JUSTIN HALL

justin@blowfishbaseball.com

The Gators started out hot, up 12-10 through the first five matches. Issac Ortega, Ian Obeso, and Michael Kesler’s wins helped River Bluff gain the early advantage.

Consecutive pinfalls by the Rams helped fortify a run that put the Gators in serious trouble down 35-12.

As they did on Wednesday against Summerville, the Gators battled back. The final 4 matches would have to be won by pinfall for River Bluff to hoist a state championship.

Armondo Maestre and Patrick Palmer scored 2 pins and put the Gators right back in contention. Trailing 35-24, the River Bluff rally ended with a pin by Hillcrest’s Grant Hopkins of John Brown at 152 pounds.

“I told them if we pin out, we win by one. I don’t care if you win, you guys got to pin,” Moxie told the media. “Got those first two and we are thinking, oh boy. We knew the last match we had a real good chance to get a pin.

“I think we could have won the match (152 pounds) if we were going out just to win. When you’ve got to go out and look for a pin, sometimes that happens. I couldn’t be more proud of this team. They battled and did an amazing job all year long.”

The Gators closed the match with a pinfall, but the Rams had clinched their 3rd state title and first since 2012.