WRESTLING: Rosewood wins Carolina/2 Rivers dual-team title

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 18, 2016 1:49 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Rosewood claimed the 2016 Carolina/Two Rivers Class 1-A Conference dual-team championship in perfect fashion on Saturday afternoon.

The Eagles (30-6 overall) emerged as the automatic qualifiers for the N.C. High School Athletic Association dual-team playoffs, which begin Feb. 2.

"The conference (dual) tournament was a great experience for our younger guys," said RHS head coach Bill Edmundson, whose team defeated Princeton (71-9), Tarboro (54-30), Manteo (54-21) and third-year league member Neuse Charter (65-12).

"It allowed them to see where they were in relationship to other schools our size. The majority of our schedule is wrestled against 3-A and 4-A schools. We had a great team effort for the entire day."

One day earlier, the Eagles avenged an earlier loss to Fike and won just one of five contested individual matches against short-handed Pamlico County. Edmundson considered those two wins as "measuring sticks" for his team.

"Fike beat us earlier in the year when we were missing three of our starters," Edmundson said. "Our guys were up and ready for the match and we were able to come away with a win."

Six Rosewood grapplers finished unbeaten during the two days of dual competition -- Timothy Decatur-Luker (6-0), Chris Hill (5-0), Tanner Smith (3-0), Jayden Thomas (5-0), Blake Dean (6-0) and heavyweight Kaleb Taylor (3-0). Dylan Melgar, Hunter Weeks and Jordan Todd each posted a 5-1 worksheet.

Decatur-Luker has a team-leading 41 individual wins, followed by Todd (39), Chris Hill (36), Melgar (29) and Blake Dean (28).

The Eagles entertain Southern Nash and Northern Nash on Wednesday. They return to the match Thursday at Eastern Wayne for a four-team quad that includes North Johnston and Nash Central.