WRESTLING -- ECC 3A-4A

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 1, 2016 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

GREENVILLE -- New Bern, as expected, dominated the season-ending Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A Conference individual wrestling championships on Saturday.

The Bears, who won the regular-season title in undefeated fashion, claimed eight individual titles and racked up an eye-popping 243.5 points.

Wayne County wrestlers returned home with some hardware, too.

Charles B. Aycock junior Josh Wallace emerged as the ECC champion at 160 pounds and assistant Mark Bass was named the league's coach-of-the-year. In all, eight Golden Falcons seized a medal in their respective weight classes and earned team runner-up honors with 120 points.

"A great big shout out to Mark," Aycock head coach RJ Allen said. "He continues to do so much for our community in running the Little Falcons program, coaching Aycock wrestling and then a few nights each week holding wrestling workouts for the younger kids in the community.

"(He's) someone who gets little recognition for all he does. This is a well-deserved honor for him."

Hayden Gurley (126 pounds), Chase Hapes (145) and Cody Grenier (170) each placed second. Teammates Austin Doyle (106), Tyler Marquard (132), Brandon Washington (220) and heavyweight Jon Girard each captured third place.

Zach Creel grabbed fourth at 138.

"(We're) ending the season on a good note, but we still have work to do over the next few weeks and then individual regionals and states," Allen said. "We're very pleased with the team."

Eastern Wayne had three silver medalists -- 106-pounder Mario Harper, 113-pounder Colby Miller and 132-pounder Cainen Miller. Harper lost a 9-8 heart-breaker to New Bern's William Dudley.

Fellow Warriors Johnathan Harris (120), Nate Matthews (145), Jordan Wooten (182) and Dillisus Council (195) each collected a bronze medal. Harris scored a 19-9 major decision over Southern Wayne's Delvonte Davis. Matthews claimed a tie-breaking win over J.H. Rose's Alex Hammond.

Wooten slipped past the Saints' Tim Taylor, 5-4. Keishaun Smythe claimed fourth at 170 pounds.

"As a coaching staff, we are very pleased with our guys' performance this weekend," said first-year EW head coach Aaron Lynch, whose team compiled 97 points.

"We had several of our wrestlers avenge earlier losses against difficult opponents. All of our guys came out to wrestle and really executed what we have been talking about at practice. Our guys are really wrestling well and we want to build on this momentum as we approach the regional tournament in a few weeks."

Southern Wayne had five grapplers turn in top-four finishes. Kimari Johnson lost to Wallace at 160. Teammate Mikal Leach secured third at 160 pounds with a 96-second fall over D.H. Conley's Tim Bullock.

Raekwon Hardy and Devante Jackson each took fourth.

C.B. Aycock returns to action Tuesday against an undetermined opponent in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 3-A dual-team playoffs. Individual regional competition begins Feb. 12.