Month: November 2021

Losing seven regular rotation players from the year before has the tendency to create uncertainty at the beginning of a new basketball season.

Yet even after losing five of his top six scorers from last season, Cedar Ridge men’s basketball coach Jaison Brooks didn’t have to worry about putting points on the board when it mattered most against Durham School of the Arts on Monday night.

The Red Wolves broke open a tight game by scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter to break open a tight game and defeat the Bulldogs 61-40 at Red Wolves Arena on Monday night. In his first varsity game, junior guard Colton Taylor finished with a game-high 15 points, nine of which came in the final 8:01.

Junior Něco Clark added ten points as the Red Wolves won its season opener over the Bulldogs for the second time in three years.

Caleb Hawkins led DSA (1-4) with 12 points, most of which were 3-pointers in garbage time.

After Cedar Ridge pushed its lead to 27-18 midway through the third quarter, the Bulldogs rallied for consecutive field goals from guard Josh Dorsette and Bryce Lawson to reduce the Red Wolves lead. In the waning second of the third quarter, Taylor caught a 3-pointer that fell short of the rim and laid it in just before the buzzer, which triggered at 12-0 run and put the game away.

“That’s pretty much how he’s played since he’s been part of our program,” Brooks said. “We were excited to have him move up from the junior varsity squad. That’s what we expect from him. He works hard.”

After losing A.J. Richmond, Grady Ray, Luke Pagnanelli, Ian Johnson, Samuel Garbee and James Ragland to graduation, and rising junior Johntez Raspberry transferred to Walter Williams, it would have only been natural to wonder about Cedar Ridge’s depth. Instead, all eleven Red Wolves that dressed out played, and ten of them scored.

“We are happy with the group that we have,” Brooks said. “They all have their strengths that contribute to what we’re trying to do. So we are ecstatic that they’re potential is starting to show. It’s also the things that we see behind closed doors be brought to light so others can see it.”

Cedar Ridge’s Rawlins Taylor scored four points early for the Red Wolves as the game was nip-and-tuck early. The Red Wolves led 10-8 at the end of the first quarter. Colton Taylor added two field goals in the second quarter as the Red Wolves took a 20-15 into the locker room.

The game kicked off a busy week for the Red Wolves. They will return to action tonight (Tuesday) against Voyager Academy at 7:15 at Cedar Ridge. On Friday night, the Red Wolves will host East Chapel Hill.

WOMEN’S GAME: DSA 60, Cedar Ridge 19

The best way to examine the growth of the Cedar Ridge women’s basketball team in its season opener compared to last winter was by looking at the bench.

Last year, the Red Wolves often only had five players available. They played several games without simply being able to substitute.

On Monday night, the Red Wolves had 15 players suited up under new head coach Megan Skouby. And that was without several starters from last year.

Nonetheless, DSA easily prevailed 60-19 after the Bulldogs jumped out to a 14-0 lead early. Cedar Ridge’s Julie Altieri, coming off a 3A State Championship in volleyball, was the Red Wolves leading scorer in her first high school game with six points. Kathryn Romska, in her varsity debut, scored four points.

Skouby, who served as an assistant volleyball coach for Cedar Ridge this season, is a former head coach at South Iredell. The Red Wolves will host Voyager Academy tonight at 6 at Red Wolves Arena.

Nylah Daniels led the Bulldogs (3-1) with 16 points, while Christina Burton and Precious Ogboko each had 14.

After winning the 3A Central Regional championship earlier this year, Orange’s Katie Belle Sikes has already qualified to defend her title in the 50 yard freestyle.

The only difference is this time she got to do it in a bona fide swimming meet.

Last week at the Orange County SportsPlex, Sikes qualified for the 3A Central Regionals in four different events during a meet that included Cedar Ridge and Eastern Alamance.

Last February, Sikes finished 2nd in the 50 yard freestyle at the 3A State Championships in Raleigh. She won the Central Regional championship in the same event. However, during the pandemic, Sikes didn’t get to experience a standard meet with other competitors beside her because of the pandemic. She competed only against the clock while adjacent lanes remained empty. Often she was the only person in the pool.

In the meet on November 22, Orange women’s swimming team defeated Cedar Ridge 83-60. The Eastern Alamance women’s team defeated Orange 85-72.

Sikes won the 50 yard freestyle in 23.60 seconds. Cedar Ridge freshman Sophia Stinnett finished second and also qualified for regionals at 26.06.

Stinnett won the 100 yard backstroke, qualifying for regionals at 1:07.66

Sikes also won the 100 yard freestyle at 52.82, easily ahead of the regional qualifying time of 1:00.99.

Orange senior Melissa Campbell qualified for regionals in four separate events, as well. Campbell teamed with Sikes, Sandra McCouch and junior Ellie Wileman to win the 200 yard medley relay at 1:59.67. Individually, Campbell won the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 2:17.48. Campbell also capture the 100 yard butterfly at 1:07.26, beating the qualifying time by two full seconds.

In the 400 yard freestyle relay, Campbell teamed with Sikes, McCouch and Wileman to automatically qualify at 4:08.69. Cedar Ridge’s team of Stinnett, Quinn McCrimmon, Claire Kimball and Abbygale Pearce finished third and also earned a spot in regionals.

In the men’s meets, Orange defeated Eastern Alamance 96-65, and also topped Cedar Ridge 89-63.

Cedar Ridge freshman Matthew Czar qualified for the regionals in the 200 yard freestyle, along with two other events. In his first high school race, Czar finished first as he touched the wall at 2:01.40, narrowly beating Orange’s Nick Baczara by two-tenths of-a-second.

Another Cedar Ridge freshman, Alexander Hill, earned a bid for regionals in four different events. In the 200 yard intermediate, Hill finished first at 2:08.02. Also in the 200 yard, Orange’s Roman finished second at 2:10.83, while Phillips came in third. Roman and Phillips also qualified for regionals.

Hill also won the 500 yard freestyle at 5:09.28. Roman also qualified for regionals with a second place finish, touching the wall at 5:11.90.

Cedar Ridge’s 200 yard freestyle relay team of Hill, Czar, Nikhil Agans and Jason Pattison came in first at 1:41.56. The automatic regional qualifying time was 1:43.49.

Orange’s 200 yard medley relay team of senior Ian Moore, junior Evan Phillips, freshman Alexander Andre and freshman Luke Roman won the event at 1:48.08, also earning a trip to Greensboro for regionals. In the 400 yard freestyle relay, Roman, Phillips, Nick Bazara and Andre also finished first at 3:38.21, ahead of the qualifying time. Cedar Ridge’s Hill, Czar, Pattison and Agans finished second at 3:47.61.

Phillips also qualified for regionals in the 100 yard breastroke at 1:08.85.

While falling short of an automatic regional qualifying time, Orange’s Sandra McCouch won the 100 yard breaststroke at 1:18.64.

In the men’s 100 yard backstroke, Orange’s Moore finished 1st at 1:02.56, while the Panthers’ Andrew Weeks came in second with a time of 1:09.20.

Cedar Ridge’s Pattison won the 100 yard freestyle at 1:03.55. The Red Wolves’ Agans, a sophomore, won the 50 yard freestyle.

After losing seven players from last year’s team, the Cedar Ridge men’s basketball team had plenty of players making their varsity debut against Durham School of the Arts on Monday night. The Red Wolves didn’t let that stop them in a 61-40 victory over the Bulldogs in the season opener at Red Wolves Arena. In his first varsity game, junior guard Colton Taylor scored 15 points leading all scorers. The Red Wolves led 33-25, but scored 28 points in the final quarter to pull away. Taylor started the run with a lay-in off an errant shot at the third quarter buzzer, then opened the fourth quarter with consecutive field goals to keep Cedar Ridge’s lead in double-digits for good. Neco Clark, a junior, added ten points. All eleven Red Wolves played and ten of them scores as Cedar Ridge won its season opener for the second time in three years. It’s the start of a busy opening week for Cedar Ridge. The Red Wolves will host Voyager Academy on Tuesday night at Cedar Ridge. The women’s game starts at 6, while the men will start afterwards. On Friday night, Cedar Ridge will host East Chapel Hill.

Two weeks after Cedar Ridge’s volleyball team became the first female squad in school history to win a state championship, their captain has received another honor.

Junior Cameron Lloyd has been named the 3A State Player of the Year by the North Carolina Volleyball Coaches Association. Lloyd was also named to the All-Region 3 Team by the NCVBCA, along with classmate Cameron Lanier.

Lloyd was named the Most Valuable Player of Cedar Ridge’s 3A State Championship victory over North Iredell at Valvano Arena in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh on November 6. Lloyd had 13 kills, eleven digs, two assists and an ace as the Red Wolves prevailed in four sets over the Raiders. Lanier finished with 12 kills against the Raiders, along with seven digs, two blocks, and one ace.

This season, Cedar Ridge won a school-record 31 games. The Red Wolves went 12-0 in the Central Carolina Conference, which had five teams in the top 16 of the 3A East RPI rankings, including #3 Person, #4 Northwood and #6 Orange. Nonetheless, the Red Wolves defeated their aforementioned top rivals in the CCC three times each. Cedar Ridge topped Orange and Person in the CCC Tournament, then beat Northwood in the 3A Eastern Regional semifinals.

Lloyd led Cedar Ridge with 360 kills this season, setting a new single-season school record. On September 9, she recorded her 500th career kill in a 3-1 win over Eastern Alamance in Mebane. On two separate occasions, Lloyd reached her single-game high of 19 kills, first against Orange on September 7 at Red Wolves Arena, then again against East Chapel Hill on September 21 in Hillsborough.

A major ingredient to Lloyd’s 360 kills was her setter, junior Julie Altieri, who finished with a team-record 717 assists. Altieri was awarded a golden volleyball before Cedar Ridge’s game against Northwood for 1,000 career assists on September 28. Altieri, who is now a member of the Red Wolves’ women’s basketball team, will go into her senior season with 1,499 career assists.

Altieri also kept opposing teams off balance by being a left-handed setter. She led the team with 70 aces.

In January, Lloyd was named All-Big 8 Conference and team MVP when the Red Wolves finished 8-0 and captured the Big 8 Conference Championship in an abbreviated season because of the pandemic. After beating Union Pines in the opening round, they lost to D.H. Conley in Greenville.

Cedar Ridge learned a lot from that loss to the Vikings. More importantly, they filled several gaps.

While Lloyd led the team in kills, her attacking load wasn’t as full this year compared to her freshman and sophomore seasons. The addition of former East Chapel Hill libero Melissa Benkowitz, who transformed into a reliable outside hitter, and the debut of sophomore Addie Reid gave the Red Wolves more weapons.

“We learned that we have to rely on everybody,” Lloyd said after the Red Wolves win over South Johnston in the 2nd round of the state playoffs on October 26. “We couldn’t rely on one person to two people. It’s a team sport and we needed to step up and own our position.”

While it wasn’t heralded at the time, Lanier also reached the 500-kill plateau in the win over North Iredell. This season, Lanier had 245 kills, along with 39 total blocks.

When the conference portion of the schedule started, Lanier had a string of six consecutive games with double-digit kills. That was capped by a 15-kill effort against Williams on September 16 in Burlington. Lanier had a season-high 16 kills against Northwood on September 28, which essentially put the conference championship race out of reach.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is sophomore cross country runner Gabriel Schmid. This fall was the most successful season in Orange men’s cross country history. The Panthers won the Central Carolina Conference championship. They also captured the Mideast Regional Championship, just the second regional title in team history. Schmid played a big role in the Panthers’ success. He placed third in the Central Carolina Conference championship meet with a time of 16:44.28, which helped the Panthers finished with 28 points and earn the championship. In the Mideast Regionals, which included a field of 130 runners, Schmid finished 4th. He crossed the finish line at 16:44.31. Orange came in 3rd in the 3A State Championships. Schmid, in a field of 175 runners, finished 12th. Since cross country season ended, Schmid has gone right back to work with many of his teammates. Now, they’re preparing for the indoor track & field season, which will start in January. In addition to running, Schmid sings in the Orange chorus.

After the unorthodox wrestling season from last spring, Cedar Ridge wrestling coach Scott Metcalf had to find a way to replace two captains and a senior who qualified for the Mideast Regionals.

Instead of rebuilding, the Red Wolves may now have the deepest team in Metcalf’s tenure.

On Wednesday night, Cedar Ridge opened the season with three wins in a quad meet inside Red Wolves Arena. The very first match of the season was also the Red Wolves’ Central Carolina Conference opener, where they defeated Person 42-33. Cedar Ridge also defeated Jordan 60-24 and Panther Creek 52-24.

It was Cedar Ridge’s first match since the graduation of Daina Pritchard, an All-Big 8 Conference selection in 2021 who qualified for the 3A State Championships at 145 pounds and finished 24-4 last season. Another graduate, Kady Watkins, was the first female wrestler in Hillsborough history to compete for a state championship.

James Rosati-Brown, a starter at 152 pounds last spring, also graduated with a career record of 77-48.

“The only weight we’re missing right now is 106 (pounds),” Metcalf said. “We’re looking pretty stout. We have a lot of young guys. A lot of them wrestled in middle school so a lot of them have experience. They’re more talented as freshman than Daina and Kady were when they started when they first came in. These kids are a little more athletic and up on things.”

On Saturday, Cedar Ridge held its annual Red Wolves Invitational, which included 21 teams from across the state. Northwest Guilford, which had six wrestlers win individual championships, captured the team title with 233 points. Cedar Ridge finished eight with 54 points. Kaden Tatro came in fourth place at 170 pounds for the Red Wolves. Cedar Ridge sophomore Joe O’Melia reached the consolation semifinals.

Orange’s Vincent Joubert-Stanzel finished fourth for Orange at 220, reaching the consolation finals via forfeit.

In the quad meet last Wednesday, Tatro had the fastest pin of the night when he defeated Jordan’s Jaylon Little-Moore in 18 seconds. Tatro pinned Panther Creek’s Mason Davis in 1:23.

O’Melia was one of several underclassmen who made an instant impact for the Red Wolves on opening night in the quad-meet, scoring three pins. He defeated Person’s Victor Rodriguez in 5:44, which officially wrapped up the dual match win for the Red Wolves. Later, O’Melia pinned Daniel Maxwell of Jordan in 1:38. Against Panther Creek, O’Melia got another pin over John Dube in 59 seconds.

The closet thing to a veteran on Cedar Ridge’s wrestling team is junior Fernando Martinez, who now has 60 career victories after finishing 4th at 120 pounds in the Red Wolves Invitational. Last week, Martinez pinned Noah Vo of Panther Creek in 1:07 and Angel Perez of Jordan in 1:20. He also earned a forfeit win over Person. Martinez was an All-Big 8 Conference selection last season, but fell short of qualifying for the state championships after receiving a tough draw in the regional championships.

At 126 pounds, Pierce Prescod won all three of his matches, two of them by pinball.

Another strong newcomer was freshman Leo Oguntoyinbo at 138 pounds. Oguntoyinbo, the younger brother of Cedar Ridge lacrosse midfielder Romon Oguntoyinbo, won all three of his matches last week in his high school debut. Oguntoyinbo, who attended Stanback Middle School, pinned Joshua Zacharias in 1:43. Competing at 138 pounds, Oguntoyinbo defeated Nasir Henderson of Panther Creek in 1:38, and also earned a forfeit win over Person. Leo Oguntoyinbo could also be the starting goalkeeper for the Cedar Ridge men’s lacrosse team this spring.

Ryan Rokouskas, the younger brother of former Cedar Ridge volleyball and softball player Marlee Rokouskas, scored two pins for Cedar Ridge in the quad match. He defeated Christopher Ceballos of Person in 1:10, then pinned Jack Bowser of Panther Creek in 1:03.

Kessel Summers: Summers, who won over 100 matches in his Orange wrestling career, started in his second meet at Bluefield University on November 14. In the Averett University Open in Danville, VA, Summers went 2-2, reaching the quarterfinals before losing. On Sunday, the Rams participated in the King University Open in Bristol, TN.

Braden Homsey: The Division III Ferrum Wrestling team went 3-1 during the Star City Duals at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, VA on Saturday. Former Orange wrestler Braden Homsey won all four of his matches. Ferrum defeated #24 Ozarks 28-19, where Homsey pinned Cruz Partain in 3:40, which ensured a Panther victory. Homsey pinned Porter Trapp of Southern Virginia in 1:01 at 197 pounds. Ferrum defeated Southern Virginia 38-15. The Panthers defeated Apprentice 32-21. Homsey scored a technical fall over Robin Edens 26-8. The only loss on the afternoon for Ferrum came against Roanoke 25-16. Homsey did earn a major decision victory over Collin Milko 14-3. Homsey is 10-0 so far this season for the Panthers.

Trenton Gill: The #25 N.C. State football team rolled past Syracuse 41-17 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on Saturday night. It was actually a defensive struggle for most of the first half before the Wolfpack scored four touchdowns in the final 6:20 of the second quarter. Gill had three punts for an average of 36 yards. The longest was 42 yards. Two of them were downed inside the 20-yard line. Gill had eight kickoffs, only one of which was a touchback. The Wolfpack will face North Carolina on Friday night in the biggest matchup between the two schools in decades. N.C. State is now ranked #24. If State wins and Wake Forest loses to Boston College, then the Wolfpack will go to the ACC Championship game in Charlotte for the first time ever.

Keshawn Thompson: The Campbell football team’s season came to an end with a 20-17 overtime loss to Robert Morris on Saturday at Joe Walton Stadium in Moon Township, PA. In the final game of his career, Thompson had an interception in the fourth quarter, which set up the Camels for a chance to win the game on a 27-yard field goal. A facemask penalty pushed the attempt back to 42-yards, which came up wide right. Thompson had two tackles on the afternoon. Campbell ends the season 3-8, 2-5 in the Big South Conference. Thompson led Campbell with 78 tackles this season, including 24 unassisted and 54 assisted. He also had two interceptions.

Adam Chnupa: The Elon Phoenix football team ended the season strong with a 43-28 victory over #25 Rhode Island at Rhodes Stadium. The Phoenix ended the year 6-5, its first winning season since 2018. Chnupa didn’t play in the game, but played in each of Elon’s other ten games this season.

Connor Crabtree: Drake defeated the Richmond men’s basketball team 73-70 at the Drake Knapp Center in Des Moines, IA on Saturday. Crabtree came off the bench to play 13 minutes for the Spiders. He finished scoreless after attempting one 3-pointer. On Tuesday, the Spiders defeated Georgia State 94-78 at the Robins Center. Crabtree scored five points, including a 3-pointer. He also grabbed two rebounds. Richmond is 2-2 and will host Hofstra on Monday in Richmond.

Joey McMullin: Last week, the Sandhills Community College junior varsity team defeated the Methodist University junior varsity squad 107-46 in Fayetteville. McMullin scored 13 points and grabbed three rebounds for the Flyers, who improved its record to 5-2. On Saturday, Richard Bland College defeated Sandhills 82-76. McMullin, who started once again for Sandhills, finished with 13 points, two rebounds and two assists. In eight games thus far with the Flyers, McMullin had started ever game. He is averaging 15.5 points per game and shooting 54.5% from the field. In its final game before Thanksgiving, Sandhills will host Spartanburg Methodist on Tuesday in Pinehurst.