Twin Counties Fare Well in State Wrestling Tournament

By Nick Phillips
Rocky Mount Telegram Correspondent
Saturday, February 21, 2009

WINSTON-SALEM — A season’s worth of hard work and dedication paid off for Tarboro’s Corey Smith on Saturday night, as the senior captured first place at 189 pounds in the 1-A/2-A division of the NCHSAA State Wrestling Championships.

Smith, who entered the state tournament sporting a 23-2 record, picked up four more wins on Friday and Saturday to become the Twin Counties’ lone state champ. Smith, the Eastern Regional No. 3 seed, made it to the top of the podium by defeating Mideastern No. 2 seed Brandon Moss of Thomasville in the first round, then took down the Western region’s No. 1 seeded Markus Brown.

In the championship semifinals, a bloody Smith prevailed over Tommy McMillian of North Surry by a 3-2 margin.

The championship match pitted Smith against Brach Walker of Mayodan McMichael. Walker, the Mideastern region’s No. 1 seed, gave Smith another hard-fought match. Smith came away with a 7-6 victory and the title of state champion.

Smith wasn’t the only Twin Counties representative to battle deep into the afternoon session.
In the 3-A classification, both Nash Central’s Donny Wacenske and SouthWest Edgecombe’s Landon Lucas finished out their careers by capturing fourth place in their respective weight classes. The two took different paths to their final destination.

Lucas, at 112 poundss, suffered a shoulder injury in his opening-round loss Friday night. The senior didn’t want to end his career by forfeiting away his spot, though.

He came back later to grit out a 6-0 win over Daniel Deardoff to advance to Saturday’s action. A good night’s rest later, Lucas rolled off three straight victories to place himself in the position to wrestle for third place.

There he faced Southern Alamance’s Joe Deangelo, the No. 1 seed out of the Mideastern region.
Between the grueling three previous matches and the shoulder pain, Lucas was unable to muster enough to defeat Dengelo, falling by an 18-2 score.

At 171 pounds, Wacenske was 2-0 headed into Saturday’s action. He fell to Western No. 1 seeded Chris Hill of Mooresville in the championship semifinals.

Now in the losers’ bracket, Wacenske earned a 7-3 decision victory over Greensboro Dudley’s Guillermo Magallon to advance to the consolation finals.

There, he faced Western No. 2 seed David Atwood of Tuscola. A tough, back-and-fourth battle ensued, and the two were tied after three periods. In overtime, Atwood caught Wacenske on his back for the pin and the win.

Although Wacenske and Lucas lost their final prep matches, their door prize was the title of fourth-best wrestler in the state of North Carolina.

In earlier Saturday action, both Northern Nash’s Corey Johnson and Rocky Mount High’s Ahmir Scott bowed out in the consolation second round. Scott fell to NEW 6 Conference foe Vincent Webb of Wilson Fike in overtime.

Also in the consolation second round, Rocky Mount’s Chandler Phillips was pinned at 135 pounds by Morgan McDaniel of Kannapolis Brown.

Webb went on to lose in the third round of consolation to Winston-Salem Parkland’s Antwan Davis.

Northern Nash’s Joe Young won his 215-pound second round consolation matchup, pinning Kaleb Rierson of Cameron Union Pines before falling in the third round of consolation action.

Overall, the NEW 6 Conference had 15 wrestlers advance to the championships, with the six advancing. Smith was Tarboro’s only representative.

-This article was written by me as a special to the Rocky Mount Telegram. It is my first article to be published in a major newspaper. Hopefully there will be many more of these to come! Here is the link to the article on the Telegram''s website - http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/sports/high-schools/twin-counties-fare-well-in-state-wrestling-tournament-448737.html