WELLS FARGO POINTS: Lakewood, Rosewood, Princeton stage close finish

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on June 20, 2018 5:51 AM

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By RUDY COGGINS

rcoggins@newsargus.com

A narrow finish.

Lakewood emerged as the boys' outdoor track and field champion and used those points to edge Rosewood, 72-71, in the Carolina 1-A Wells Fargo Conference Cup competition for 2017-18.

"If we had one more golfer on our men's team, then we could have competed for Cup points in golf and would have won the Cup," RHS athletics director Robert Britt said.

The Eagles repeated as league champs in baseball and earned a share of the softball title, the program's first since 2012.

In all, Rosewood collected four regular-season titles during the calendar year.

The boys' basketball team, directed by head coach Daniel Mitchell, won the league championship for the first time in 20 years. The wrestling team continued its dominance and marched to the N.C. High School Athletic Association state 1-A dual-team title.

"I thought we had a great athletic year," Britt said.

Princeton ended up one-half point behind RHS.

The Bulldogs secured the girls' outdoor track championship and tied for their 12th consecutive league crown in softball. They placed second in girls' soccer behind Neuse Charter.

Hobbton wound up fourth with 62.5 points. North Duplin (49 points), Neuse Charter (44.5) and Union (25.5) rounded out the seven-team conference.

Goldsboro and Spring Creek started new chapters in their respective athletic programs as members of the East Central 2-A Conference.

The Cougars amassed a fourth-place total of 56 points after a runner-up effort in boys' tennis and fourth-place performance in softball.

"We had a year of adjustment to a strong conference," GHS athletics director Dwight Sutton said. "We traveled further than we were used to and games were very competitive. Most sports put up better numbers with baseball and softball having record years."

Spring Creek was sixth overall with 49 points.

The Gators pulled it together on the baseball diamond and finished runner-up to regular-season champ Midway. On the soccer pitch, SC's girls were third behind perennial powerhouse Clinton and East Duplin.

East Duplin won the Cup with 97.5 points.

Charles B. Aycock was the lone county team to pick up a conference championship in either fall, winter or spring. The boys' tennis team earned the Eastern Carolina 3-A/4-A regular-season title and lost a second-round playoff match at Clayton.

The Golden Falcons scored 75.5 points.

"Overall we had a pretty good year especially when you consider who we are up against inthe conference," CBA athletics director Jon Horton said. "It is a very competitive conference in every sport. It seems like we never have a night off."

Eastern Wayne accumulated 51.5 points, while Southern Wayne had 36.5.

The Wells Fargo Conference Cup is a companion to the Wells Fargo Cup and recognizes schools with the best overall interscholastic athletic performances within individual conferences. Wachovia, and now Wells Fargo, has now sponsored the conference awards program since 1980.

In most conferences, points are awarded based on participation and standings in conference play. Each conference determines its own method of awarding points.