STATE CHAMP -- Rosewood's Taylor wins 1A heavyweight crown

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 23, 2015 1:49 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

GREENSBORO -- Kaleb Taylor watched as several of his teammates stumbled in their respective semifinal-round matches Saturday afternoon.

The goal of returning home with a team state title vanished.

"(The losses) kind of worked both ways because I was expecting to have a lot of teammates in the finals," Taylor said. "We went there hoping to win team states and it hurt to see that it wasn't going to work. Some of my best friends on the wrestling team are Josh (Drew) and Rayquon (Jones) and after seeing them lose their semifinal match, I said to myself that 'I had to try to make this happen.'"

He made sure the other goal didn't suffer the same fate.

Confident in his ability and fueled by a desire which burned deep within his soul, Taylor emerged as the heavyweight champion in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A individual state wrestling tournament contested at Greensboro Coliseum. The junior is the second state champ in program history and the 22nd overall in Wayne County lore since 1952.

"It feels pretty good," Taylor said.

One year ago in the same venue, Taylor fell to Trask's Jervon Faison in the finals and watched as tournament officials draped the gold medal around Faison's neck. That defeat pushed Taylor to boost his work ethic during the offseason, which included more weight room sessions, cardio training and a change in diet.

The change paid dividends.

Taylor started his gold-medal run with a second-period fall over NO's Paden Lungrin in the quarterfinals. He turned back Rosman's Andres Villagomez, 5-3, in a grueling semifinal-round match.

While he wrestled Villagomez, teammate Blake Dean scouted the other match between western champ Todd Self of Mitchell and east runner-up Casey Canterbury of Chatham Central. Self upended Canterbury by an ultimate tiebreaker, 3-2.

Dean said Taylor was in better shape.

"I knew it was going to be tough because all of the kids from the west, especially the one, two and three (seeds) were all about the same skill level, so I knew it was going to be tough," Taylor said.

After a scoreless first period, Taylor seized a second-round escape point. Self's third-period escape knotted the score at 1-1 and eventually forced overtime. Taylor thought he had earned the match-clinching takedown (two points), but the official said both wrestlers were out of bounds.

When they returned to center mat, Taylor decided not go for the single-leg, but instead tried a move -- a shove by -- he had been practicing for just a week. Self posted an arm on Taylor's shoulder, Taylor worked his arm underneath and got the advantage.

With two ticks left on the clock, Taylor took Self down to the mat.

Match over.

"I can't believe it worked," Taylor said.

A short celebration ensued as the junior became just the fifth individual state champ in Rosewood's athletics history. He joins Jessica Hietpas (track), Jamie Hollingsworth (track), Bob Cooke (track) and Nick Quillen (wrestling) -- who are listed on a banner hanging in the school's gymnasium.

"The difference from last year to this year in (Kaleb's) confidence has been the difference in the outcome of the matches," said RHS head coach Bill Edmundson, who has taken 19 state qualifiers to the state meet in the last two years.

"Kaleb has worked very hard this year in the wrestling room putting in the hours and miles necessary, and was able to earn his state title."

Now it's time to design a ring.