There’s been plenty of milestones around the Cedar Ridge wrestling program recently.
Senior Kaden Tatro is on the verge of breaking the school’s all-time record for wins in program history.
Last week, junior Pierce Prescod won his 100th career match, becoming the seventh wrestler in school history to surpass the century mark.
Yet Prescod is the third Cedar Ridge wrestler in the past three years to win 100 matches, joining Tatro and Fernando Martinez, who is now redshirting as a freshman at Division II UNC Pembroke.
When you consider that Cedar Ridge went 16 years without a 100-win wrestler, it tells you all you need to know about how much depth has arrived within the program under the direction of head coach Scott Metcalf since the pandemic.
Last week, the surest sign came on Senior Night when the Red Wolves celebrated an undefeated Central Conference season by beating Walter Williams 69-9 on January 10 at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Cedar Ridge wrapped up its first Central Conference regular season championship.
It is Cedar Ridge’s second regular season conference championship in wrestling and its first at the 3A level. The other league title came in 2010, when the Red Wolves were a 2A team competing in the Mid-State Conference. With the title, Cedar Ridge automatically gains a spot in the State Dual Team Tournament, which was a point of emphasis for Metcalf.
Last year, Cedar Ridge won the Central Conference Tournament at Orange High School, the first sign of what was ahead in 2024. But the Red Wolves lost dual matches to Orange (the conference regular season champion) and Person, leaving them out of the field of 32.
The Red Wolves officially clinched the title with a 48-21 victory over Western Alamance on January 3 in Hillsborough. Fittingly, senior James Este-Wittinger won the match that sewed up the conference title for the Red Wolves. Este-Wittiner, who qualified for the state championships last year, earned a 6-5 decision over Cameron Pettigrew at 215 pounds to put the Red Wolves ahead 45-15, which proved insurmountable.
Earlier in the night, Prescod, Nathan Vendura, Graylon Collins and Shea Spiller all earned pinfall victories for the Red Wolves. Cedar Ridge’s Alejandro Briones defeated Jaxon Poole 8-6 at 144 pounds to improve Cedar Ridge’s lead to 21-6. Tatro held off Zeke May 6-0 at 175 pounds. Favio Jaramillo Esparza pinned Toriana Murphy at 106 pounds later in the night, while Luis DonJuan won at heavyweight over Evan Hensley of Western Alamance 8-1.
In addition to its victory over Williams on January 10, the Red Wolves defeated Southeast Alamance 71-9 and East Chapel Hill 53-27 to close out the quad meet on its senior night.
Tatro earned his 150th win with three technical fall victories. He defeated Sawyer Marshall of Williams, Holden Noble of East Chapel Hill and Nichols Saounders of Southeast Alamance. In addition, Tatro picked up two more wins during the Chapel Hill quad at Chapel Hill High School last Friday. Tatro got another technical fall win over Sergio Hewitt of Chapel Hill, then pinned Mohammed Jatta of Millbrook. Tatro is now at 152 career wins. The school record is held by Chandler Collins, who finished with 166 victories from 2003-2007.
Tatro is 43-4 with 20 pins and 15 technical falls this season.
Another emerging star is heavyweight Aaron Olivares, who has pinned his last seven opponents. Olivares earned victories over Chris Mellon of Williams, Landen Hill of Southeast Alamance and Stephen Halsey of East Chapel Hill on senior night. He is 23-16 with 18 pins this season.
Prescod, competing at 120 pounds, won all three of his matches on Senior Night. Prescod earned career win #100 with a pin of Henry Parnell of East Chapel Hill. Over the weekend, Prescod pinned Owen Rector of Chapel Hill and Kyle Amose of Millbrook to improve to 39-9 this season with 29 pins.
Junior Ryan Rakouskas has won five straight matches going into this weekend’s Central Conference Tournament. Rakouskas pinned Gabriel Waterhouse of Chapel Hill and John Burch of Millbrook to improve to 28-10 with 23 pins. Rakousaks also qualified for the state championships last year.