Nick Kee and Rakeem Covington, both from Scotland, punched their tickets to Greensboro for the tournament this Friday by finishing in the top-four places in their weight class’s bracket.
Meanwhile, Richmond Senior fell short in its quest to send grapplers to state. Richmond’s Zac Covington could not get past his second-round opponent in the consolation bracket, falling late in the third period. Wesley Mason, after his loss in the winner’s semifinals to Kee, lost a close match 3-2 in the semifinals of the consolation bracket to John Thomas Cameron, a No. 6 seed from South View.
The Scots’ Kee guaranteed his spot with an 11-0 win over Richmond’s Wesley Mason to advance to the winner’s bracket finals. Covington battled his way back into contention in the consolation bracket with a pair of wins, then defeated Lumberton’s Donovan Gonderman 9-3 with six late points to earn a trip to the tournament.
Coach Nicky Kee was happy that he had two wrestlers who still had more bouts this season, but knew the flip-side was not everyone would get that chance.
“It’s a great feeling, but also kind of disappointing when you bring six and only take two to the states,” he said. “Kee is a freshman, and probably going to be the only freshman in his weight class, so that’s exciting.”
Scotland’s Bradley Stewart was unable to lock a spot up on his first try against Kamal Leak of South View, and lost control of his match against Seventy First’s Derrick Newkirk, losing 8-2 in the consolation semifinals. Dustin Chaves advanced into the consolation quarterfinals by forfeit, but Southeast Raleigh’s Kyle McCarthy edged out a narrow 5-3 win in his next bout. Ben Ewald won two matches in the consolation bracket before falling to Jeff Zukowski from E. E. Smith.
The Pirates’ Anthony Gonderman defeated Garner’s Christian Townsend 9-5 in round two of the consolation bracket, but was upset by No. 13 seed DeMitrieus Davenport from New Bern in the quarters. His brother Donovan fell to Pine Forest’s Kevin Radford in the second period after being up most of the match in the winner’s bracket, before losing to Covington in the consolation bracket.
Coach Heath Wren thought Donovan Gonderman fought hard, but fatigue caught up with him at the end.
“It’s been a long day around here,” he said. “He was actually leading against Pine Forest at one point in the match. I thought he recovered mentally, but I guess not.”
After winning his first consolation match Friday, Pirate Keno Baker was knocked out by Frankie Jimenez of West Johnston. Jordan Worriax defeated Smithfield-Selma’s Oscar Chairez in his second consolation match, but Scotland’s Ewald fell him midway through the third to deny Worriax a spot in the consolation semifinals.
No. 3 seed Steven Jacobs was the only wrestler from Purnell Swett to make it to Saturday, and picked up two straight wins in the consolation bracket by pinfall. After tying his semifinal match against Pine Forest’s Marcus Miller, neither player scored in sudden-death overtime, and Miller picked up a point in the third extra period.
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