Topsail falls short in 2A wrestling tournament

Thu. February 09, 2012 at 10:25 p.m. | By Tim Hower | StarNews Correspondent

Topsail's Eric Thigpen fights to stay off his back against Josh Sawyer in Topsail's loss to Durham School of the Arts in the 2A East wrestling tournament in Hampstead on Thursday. (Photo by Paul Stephen)

Topsail wrestling coach Jake Pence wasn't upset following his team's 42-36 loss to Durham School of the Arts in the third round of the 2A dual team playoffs Thursday night.
He couldn't be. The Pirates returned just five starters and one state qualifier from last year's team and still finished as one of the top eight teams in the state.
"My hat's off to my kids," Pence said. "They wrestled extremely well. All year long they improved and it shows.
"If you think about it, we are one win away from where we were last year with 11 state qualifiers, four placers, three finalists and a two-time state champion. To finish almost the same as a great team, what a phenomenal effort by a bunch of young kids."
In the other third-round match, Croatan routed North Brunswick 72-9. Croatan then went on to defeat DSA in the East finals 35-29 to advance to the state finals on Saturday.
In the match against Topsail, DSA got off to a fast start. They led 18-0 after a pair of forfeit wins and a pin. The Pirates chose to bump 106-pounder Italo Medelius up to 113 and give DSA 106-pounder Drake Swigart (32-4) a forfeit.
The strategy actually paid off for Topsail, as Medelius got a pin to cut the deficit to 18-6. At 120, Taylor Webster also got a second period pin and Johnny Deveaugh pinned Branden Strothers with 1 second to go in the first period to tie the score at 18.
Following the match, DSA was penalized a team point when Strothers threw his headgear, so Topsail led 18-17 after six bouts.
"Their 113-pounder wasn't as tough, so we wanted to go six-for-six and exchange points and it worked out," Pence said.
DSA proved to be too deep though, as it won the next four matches for a 38-18 lead.
Topsail's Robert Sculthorpe kept his team alive with a pin at 160 pounds, but DSA clinched the victory with a 13-1 major decision by Joshua Sawyer at 170 pounds.
"That's what happens in 2A wrestling," DSA coach Chase Kernodle said. "We wrestled all the big boys, the Orange and Davie counties, and the difference between them and us is they are 14 deep and we are six or seven deep, so it hurts.
"Topsail's throwing freshmen and sophomores out and that hurts when you face the big boys, but on a 2A level you can compete."
North Brunswick's wins came from Gabriel Self and Librado Hernandez.