A good year for western Hillsborough wrestling continues.
The Cedar Ridge wrestling team claimed the Buccaneer Cup at Bartlett Yancey High School on Saturday, the first team championship claimed by a Hillsborough squad this year. The Red Wolves finished with 38 points in the six-team tournament. Granville Central finished 2nd with 32 points. Burlington Cummings had 30 points.
Durham School of the Arts, Graham and Bartlett Yancey also participated.
In an unusual round robin format, five Cedar Ridge wrestlers won individual championships.
Freshman Fernando Martinez claimed the 106-pound championship by winning all three of his matches. Martinez scored two pins. In the match that decided his weight division, he defeated Granville Central’s Trevor Johnson 13-11 in the first sudden victory round. Martinez, who finished runner-up in the Red Wolves Invitational on November 23, is now 25-6 with 12 pins.
Daina Pritchard won the 138-pound championship after scoring three pins in three matches. He defeated Jakoby Casselman of Bartlett Yancey in 3:00 to claim the title. Pritchard, who finished 3rd in the Jim King/Orange Invitational on December 7, is tied with Martinez for the team-lead with 25 wins. He now has 16 pins.
James Rosati-Brown claimed the 152-pound championship with the largest workload of any of his teammates. He won five matches, all by pitfall. Rosati-Brown pinned Blake Collins of Bartlett-Yancey to finish the tournament with an unblemished record. It was the second time this season that Rosati-Brown has placed in a tournament. He finished 5th in the JKO.
Rosati-Brown is 24-9 with 15 pins.
Ruffin Wyrick took the 170 pound championship to improve to 20-9. He now leads Cedar Ridge with 18 pins. Wyrick pinned Marcos Padron-Diaz of Durham School of the Arts in 20 seconds, leading to the final where he pinned Randy Smith of Bartlett Yancey.
At heavyweight, Louis Tedder won his first individual championship of his career. Competing in two matches, Tedder pinned Adonay Pineda-Sorto of Durham School of the Arts and Jalik McNair of Bartlett Yancey.
Alex Christian was on the verge of taking the 182-pound championship. Christian finished 3-1 with pinfall wins over Ashton Applewhite of Granville Central, Dalton Roberson of Cummings and Alexander Salinas of Durham School of the Arts. Dylan Wall of Bartlett Yancey pinned Christian in the championship match.
Cedar Ridge entered the season after the graduation of Darius McLeod, who amassed 97 wins in his career. McLeod is now at Western Carolina University, but checked in on his former team during the Tiger Holiday Classic last month at Chapel Hill High School.
In other results, Cedar Ridge’s Kady Watkins won her seventh match of the season. As she prepares for the NCHSAA Girls State Tournament on February 8 in Winston-Salem, Watkins pinned Wasim Alsaidi of Barlett Yancey at 120 pounds.
Last week, Cedar Ridge earned its first Big 8 Conference win of the season by beating Northern Durham 63-10 at Poe Gymtorium. Wyrick, Alex Christian, Gio Poma, and Louis Tedder all earn pinfall victories. Rosati-Brown defeated Shamari Zachary 7-6. Poma’s victory sewed up the win for Cedar Ridge.
Cedar Ridge returns to action on Friday in the Dash Classic in Willow Springs. It will be a two-day tournament.