From Staff Reports
Chapel Hill, Durham Riverside, Cary and Green Hope advanced through the first two rounds of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A dual-team wrestling tournament on Tuesday night.
The four winners are set up to have a Piedmont Athletic-versus-Tri-Eight showdown in the third round.
Cary, 28-0 and the No. 1 seed from the Tri-Eight, will face Durham Riverside, 31-4 and a wild card from the PAC Six.
Chapel Hill, 22-4 and the No. 1 seed from the PAC Six, faces Green Hope, 39-4 and the No. 2 seed from the Tri-Eight.
The site of the third and fourth rounds will be determined today.
In dual-team competition, teams advance, not individuals. The individual state championships are scheduled to begin next week.
On Tuesday, the teams wrestled their first and second rounds. The state quarterfinals and semifinals will be on Thursday and the state finals on Saturday.
4-A TOURNAMENT: Undefeated Cary, the 2007 state 4-A champion, defeated host Fayetteville Britt 45-19 and Wilmington Laney 52-14 in an overwhelming display.
Laney had beaten Hope Mills South View 48-24 in its first-round match.
Durham Riverside defeated host Sanderson 39-31 in a first-round match in which it forfeited four bouts after clinching the team win.
Riverside then defeated PAC Six runner-up Northern Durham 47-18. Northern had topped West Johnston 32-30 in its first-round match.
"We wrestled very well," Riverside coach Walt Tolarchyk said. "But we have to get better quickly."
Chapel Hill won two close matches to reach the third round.
The Tigers defeated Person 37-33 in the first round and Fayetteville Seventy-First 36-32 in the second round. Seventy-First had beaten East Wake 47-30 in its playoff opener.
3-A TOURNAMENT: Cameron Union Pines, 27-10 and the Cape Fear Valley No. 2 seed, reached the third round.
Unions Pines topped Burlington Williams 42-34 and nipped Greensboro Dudley 28-27 in the second round.
Also advancing in the 3-A East were Eden Morehead, Havelock and either Currituck or Eastern Wayne.
Southern Lee, the Cape Fear No. 1 seed, beat Nash Central 53-23 in the first round but lost to Morehead 40-33.
2-A TOURNAMENT: The Mid-State 1-A/2-A's Orange and Pittsboro Northwood teams advanced with Kill Devil Hills First Flight and Croatan.
Orange, 27-1 and the No. 1 league seed, beat West Stokes 60-21 in the first round and Mayodan McMichael 37-27 in the second round.
Northwood, 21-14 and the Mid-State runner-up, advanced with a first-round win over North Pitt and a 37-34 win over Eastern Guilford in the second round.
Orange and Northwood will meet in the third round.
1-A TOURNAMENT: Hampstead Topsail, South Davidson, Robbinsville and Alleghany advanced to the state semifinals.
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