WRESTLING: Rosewood has 8 state qualifiers

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on February 15, 2016 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PRINCETON -- One week after claiming its first-ever dual-team wrestling state championship in program history, Rosewood brought home more hardware Sunday afternoon.

Four grapplers won eastern regional individual crowns and eight earned top-three finishes overall as the Eagles easily claimed the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A individual eastern regional team title with a whopping 192.5 points.

South Davidson finished second with 119.5 points.

"(We) wrestled with confidence this weekend," RHS head coach Bill Edmundson said. "Coming off of the success of last weekend's team state championship, our guys seemed much more confident on the mat and believed in themselves. This is something that coach Kilpatrick, coach Sullivan and coach Smith and I try to do.

"You simply can't coach those two things."

Undoubtedly two of the most-improved wrestlers on the team, Rosewood junior Jayden Thomas (138 pounds) and senior Blake Dean (220) shined during the final round. Edmundson said Thomas had a "mental and physical breakthrough (on the mat)" during December, and it paid off with a second-period fall over North Moore's Garrett Kidd.

Dean capped his gold-medal performance with a 4-2 conquest of East Montgomery's Robert Alvarez. Dean improved to 40-2 overall this season.

"Blake wrestled his absolute best this weekend," Edmundson said. "He proved that he deserved his number one seed. When your practice partner is a returning state champion (Kaleb Taylor), you are forced to step it up a few notches, and it has paid off last season."

Speaking Taylor, the reigning state 1-A heavyweight champion, remained unbeaten in 47 outings. Taylor pinned all three opponents he faced and spent a total of 5 minutes, 34 seconds on the mat.

Taylor will meet Mitchell's Todd Self in opening-round action of next weekend's state tournament. Taylor defeated Self to help Rosewood secure the dual-team championship last Saturday.

"(It) was a physical and brutal match last weekend," Edmundson said. "We look forward to the rematch."

Jordan Todd seized the 126-pound eastern crown. Once he met Chatham Charter junior Chris Brannon in the finals, Todd used a surprising strategy that Edmundson fully supported. Up 2-0, he took the top position in the third period.

"He assured me he could ride his opponent out," Edmundson said. "He made the right call."

Senior Dylan Melgar (170) and junior Cameron Helt (182) grabbed silver medals in their respective weight classes. Helt was the No. 13. Timothy Decatur-Luker took third at 106 pounds, while Reid Amodeo ended up fourth at 120.

"Dylan wrestled very intellectual matches this weekend, pacing himself and capitalizing on his opponents' mistakes," Edmundson said. "Cameron was able to upset the number three seed and wrestled a great match in the finals. (Timothy) rolled through a nearside cradle and we were called pinned (on the move).

"Timothy bounced back and took third learning a very valuable lesson. Reid stepped up his game this week. He wrestled tough and into the elite class."