Carrboro wrestling wins 2A East, heads to its first dual-team title match
Carrboro is heading to the N.C. High School Athletic Association dual-team wrestling championship match following third- and fourth-round regional victories over Wheatmore and Mount Pleasant, respectively, on Thursday.
The Jaguars will host Newton-Conover at a time to be determined on Saturday.
“They wrestled exactly like I expected them to,” said Carrboro head coach DeWitt Driscoll. “They were mistake free and wearing guys out. All the things we practice and train, they did that today.”
In the third round, Carrboro made easy work of Wheatmore, 50-21.
Wheatmore (19-8) won the first match at 145 when Chase McKinney picked up a decision against Akin Dustin. After that, Carrboro (10-2) won seven straight bouts, including two by forfeit.
There was controversy in the 285 match.
Emanuel Oquaye dominated Devin Daugherty with his control and strength, but was almost disqualified for a flagrant foul in final three seconds of the match. Oquaye had top position and back control when Daugherty jerked his head up and into Oquaye. Taking exception to this, Oquaye gave Daugherty a headbutt.
The match was briefly stopped as the referee contemplated calling Oquaye for the flagrant. Driscoll argued his case for his wrestler, and the referee decided on calling both men for unnecessary roughness.
Mount Pleasant defeated Washington in the third round, 31-30, but the score was much closer than the matches after Mount Pleasant (32-7) forfeited the final two to the Pam Pack (26-3).
The first match, a 152-pound bout between Carrboro’s David Veltri and Mt. Pleasant’s Grant McDonald set the tone. The two wrestlers both gained a point on their advantage, but otherwise wrestled to a stalemate that headed to overtime. After a one minute overtime that yielded no result, they went to the advantage round. Both wrestlers traded preventions before going to a third advantage round.
Veltri started on the bottom, and worked his way up to his feet where McDonald grabbed a high single. Veltri turned, rolled through, and took the back of McDonald for a reversal and the victory.
“It was something I felt,” said Veltri. “It’s funny how the crazy things help you out. That’s just something I do goofing around at practice and it won me the match.”
That win put Carrboro up 3-0 and gave them the momentum right off the bat.
“That set the tone,” said Driscoll “I get chills thinking about it. David needed a win like that. He’s had ups and downs, emotionally and mentally, and for him to come out and keep his composure and grit out a win like that was fantastic.”
Carrboro kept the momentum going with back-to-back decision victories to go up 9-0. Then down 16-6, with both teams trading decision victories Mount Pleasant picked up a big pinfall victory to make it 16-12.
Carrboro immediately responded with a Victor Monet pinfall, but Mt. Pleasant didn’t go away easily as Kyle Carton pinned AJ Jackson with one second remaining in the first period.
After a Otto Wolin decision, Carrboro found itself up 25-18 with three matches left. That’s when Quincy Monday pinned Tanner Gilmore to make it 31-18 and seal the victory for Carrboro.
Driscoll praised his entire team after the meet, and hopes that this will put more eyes on them.
“It was fantastic to be here in our home gym,” said Driscoll. “These guys deserve that attention and people realizing how hard they work and the talent they have.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2017 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Carrboro wrestling wins 2A East, heads to its first dual-team title match."