Month: January 2024

It was the final swim inside the pool at the Orange County Sportsplex for Orange senior Katie Belle Sikes on Wednesday night. Sikes started swimming at the Sportsplex when she was seven years old. She had no idea at that time what was ahead–three individual state championships, five regional championships and a scholarship to swim at the University of Georgia. On Thursday night, Sikes was named the Central Conference Female Swimmer of the Year after she won three conference championships. She captured the 100 yard freestyle and the 200 yard freestyle. She won the 200 with a time of 1:53.92. In the 100, Sikes touched the wall at 50.81 seconds. Sikes also teamed with Riley White, Ainsley Rasinske and Piper White to win the 200 yard freestyle relay. Sikes, White, Rasinske and White won the state championship in the same event in 2023. Sikes is the defending 3A State Champion in the 50 yard and 100 yard freestyle. She has won the state championship in the 50 yard in 2022 and 2023. The Orange women’s team won the Central Conference championship on Wednesday night with 444 points. Now, Sikes will focus on the Central Regional Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center next Saturday. Sikes has won the last three regional championships in the 50 yard freestyle.

Orange senior Katie Belle Sikes discusses final meet at Orange County Sportsplex

It was the final swim inside the pool at the Orange County Sportsplex for Orange senior Katie Belle Sikes on Wednesday night. Sikes started swimming at the Sportsplex when she was seven years old. She had no idea at that time what was ahead–three individual state championships, five regional championships and a scholarship to swim at the University of Georgia.

It was senior night for the Cedar Ridge men’s and women’s swimming teams at the Orange County Sportsplex last week. On Wednesday night, senior Nikhil Agans won two gold medals at the Central Conference Swimming Championships at the SportsPlex. Agans won the 100 yard freestyle, where he finished with a time of 51.39 seconds. Last year, Agans won the conference title in the 200 yard freestyle, where he holds the school record of 1:51.70. In 2023, Agans finished fifth in the 100 yard freestyle in the 3A State Championships. In addition, Agans teamed with Phillip Cauwels, Jacob Olmstead and Christopher Seawell to win the 200 yard freestyle relay. They fiinshed with a time of 1:42.33. In his career, Agans has broken the school record in the 200 yard freestyle twice. Also, Catherine Latham celebrated senior night. On Wednesday night, Latham teamed with Alyssa Judkins, Jaylyn Brown and Emily Habib to finish fourth in the conference in the 200 yard freestyle relay. Latham also teamed wit Sierra Godfrey, Habib and Sarah Latham in the 200 yard medley relay with at time of 2:31.36. Latham also qualified for the conference championships in the 100 yard butterfly, where she finished seventh. She finished sixth in the 100 yard breastroke. Agans will continue his senior season in the Central Regionals at the Greensboro Aquatic Center next Saturday.

Cedar Ridge swimming’s Nikhil Agans & Catherine Latham discuss Senior Night

No Description

The Cedar Ridge wrestling team crowned four champions during the Central Conference Tournament at Walter Williams High in Burlington last Saturday. Freshman Alejandro Briones won the 144-pound championship when he defeated Eastern Alamance’s Mason Tanner 10-9. After losing to Tanner 22-7 via technical fall in November, Briones jumped out to a 9-1 lead last Saturday. In the final 20 seconds of the mach, Tanner evened things up at 9-9 when he earned a near fall, but Briones bridged out and scored an escape point with one second remaining to earn the victory. Briones took his first tournament championship of his Cedar Ridge career and improved to 22-11 on the season. Senior Angus Pritchard won the 150-pound championship with a 15-7 win over Andrew Dudley of Southern Alamance. Pritchard jumped out to a 4-1 lead and never trailed. After Dudley got an escape to cut Pritchard’s lead to 8-6, Prichard got a late takedown and scored the final five points of the match. Pritchard is 21-9 this season with ten pins. Cedar Ridge won the Central Conference regular season championship and will compete in the 3A State Dual Team Wrestling Championships this Saturday. The Red Wolves will face Carrboro in the opening round at Curritcuk County High School. If the Red Wolves win, they will face either Currituck County or Person in the round of 16. 

Cedar Ridge wrestling Alejandro Briones & Angus Pritchard talk winning titles at Central Tournament

No Description

The Orange men’s basketball team have a two-game lead against Eastern Alamance and Southern Alamance in the Central Conference. The Panthers defeated Eastern Alamance 75-67 on Tuesday night. Sophomore point guard Kai Wade had 20 points, four rebounds and two assists as the Panthers won its fifth straight. It was a season-high in scoring for Wade, who has had double-digit points in eleven of the 14 games he has played this year. Wade had the game-tying jumper with eight seconds remaining against Hillside in the season-opener on November 17, which led to the game-winning shot by Malachi Poole. Coleman Cloer led the Panthers with 27 points against Eastern Alamance. It was Orange’s fourth straight win over the Eagles. Orange is searching for its first conference championship in men’s basketball since the 2016-2017 season. Wade has helped direct the Orange offense since he started as a freshman last year. The Panthers will start the second half of its Central Conference slate against Western Alamance in Elon on Friday night. The Panthers face a stiff challenge in the final three weeks of the regular season. Of its final six regular season games, five of them will be on the road. Next week, the Panthers will travel to Walter Williams, then drive across town to take on Cedar Ridge inside Red Wolves Gymnasium.

Orange men’s basketball coach Derryl Britt & point guard Kai Wade discuss win over Eastern Alamance

The Orange men’s basketball team have a two-game lead against Eastern Alamance and Southern Alamance in the Central Conference. The Panthers defeated Eastern Alamance 75-67 on Tuesday night. Sophomore point guard Kai Wade had 20 points, four rebounds and two assists as the Panthers won its fifth straight.

Photo by Jacques Morin 

In golf, you make the turn when you’re halfway done with your round.

The Orange men’s basketball team has made the turn in Central Conference play. For the past seven years, they’ve been playing catch up against Northwood or Southern Durham, depending on which league they were in.

Now, everyone in the Central Conference is chasing them.

Eastern Alamance arrived to Hillsborough on Tuesday night trying to pull the Panthers back down to the pack in league play, but the Orange sophomores wouldn’t allow it.

Coleman Cloer finished with 27 points while Kai Wade added 20 as Orange defeated the Eagles 75-67 in front of a near-capacity crowd at Panther Gymnasium. Orange (8-10, 6-0 in the Central Conference) leads Southern Alamance by one game for first place in the league.

The Panthers are looking for its first conference title since the 2016-2017 season.

While the Eagles were blown out by 38 points in its last trip to Hillsborough, they have been the surprise of the league this year under new coach Parrish Walker and roster additions like Jordan Matthews and Ja’vier Tinnin. Eastern Alamance went into last week tied with Orange for first place before losing to Southern Alamance in overtime.

On Tuesday, Wade directed the Orange offense like a conductor with a symphony. Then again, perhaps James Hetfield directing Metallica would be a better analogy because Wade was as subtle as a bomb. He relentlessly drove to the basket and forced fouls against the Eagles. The Panthers finished with 32 free throws and only eight turnovers, a season-low.

“Kai played great tonight,” said Orange coach Darryl Britt. “As always, he’s the floor general. He controls tempo and pace. Him and Cole are my extension on the floor. Everything Kai did, he did well.”

Matthews paced the Eagles (12-6, 4-2) with 21 points and eleven rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season.

The Eagles shot 9-of-11 from the field in the first quarter with Tinnen racking up seven assists. Amari Gibbs scooped a stickleback shot from under the basket at the quarter buzzer to put the Eagles ahead 21-19.

Orange led 34-33 at half-time. In the second half, Wade and Cloer constantly attacked the basket, which led to several Eastern Alamance starters getting in foul trouble.

With 5:25 remaining in the third quarter, Wade sank his patented pull-up jumper and scored over Tinnen, who was whistled for his third foul. Wade’s free throw tied the game at 40-40 while Tinnen, who finished with a season-high 12 assists, left the game. The Eagles offense didn’t flow the same without him.

The Panthers immediately went on a 12-0 run with all the points coming from Cloer and Wade, culminating with a steal by Xandrell Pennix. In transition, Wade handed off to Cloer, who sank a uncontested three-pointer, vaulting the Panthers ahead 49-40.

Matthews kept the Eagles in it during the fourth quarter, scoring 17 of his 21 points in the second half. Matthews opened the final frame with a lay-in to cut the Orange lead to 54-52, but Mason Robinson caught a gorgeous hook-around pass from senior Ryan Moss for a two-handed dunk. That launched a 8-2 Orange run that included Cloer scoring off a dunk following a steal.

With Orange leading 62-55, Robinson stuffed a drive by Matthews. Pennix captured the loose ball, drove the length of the floor and collided with the Eagles’ Anthony Weaver in mid-air. Pennix  banked the shot in while Weaver was whistled for his fourth foul. Pennix completed the three-point play to increase the Orange advantage to 65-55.

Orange senior center Ryan Honeycutt finished with 15 points and eight rebounds.

The back nine of the Central Conference slate will be tricky for Orange. Of their final six conference games, five are on the road, starting with Friday’s trip to Western Alamance. The only home game will be against Southern Alamance, who lost a 5-point lead with :28 remaining in Graham against Orange on December 14. Orange escaped with a 72-68 win in overtime.

But Orange is at the turn now and they won’t be hard to find as the back nine begins.

They’re the ones on top.

BURLINGTON–There were expected winners for Cedar Ridge in the 2nd Central Conference Wrestling Tournament.

And then there was freshman Alejandro Briones.

In November, Eastern Alamance’s Mason Farmer defeated Briones by technical fall 22-7 during the Red Wolf Invitational at Cedar Ridge in the 150-pound tournament.

On Saturday at Williams High School, Briones and Farmer met again, this time in the 144-pound championship match. Briones immediately let it be known that there would be no technical fall on this day, scoring two takedowns in the opening period to take a 4-1 lead.

Briones would increase his advantage to 9-1 after he opened the second period with a takedown and scored three back points. Farmer fought back and took Briones’ back, eventually earning two back points to cut his deficit down to 9-5.

The third period may have been the most thrilling finish of the day. Tanner got a double leg takedown. In the final ten seconds, Tanner got a near fall as Briones struggled to keep his shoulders off the mat. Tanner evened the match at 9-9, but Briones escaped off the mat in the final second and earned a 10-9 upset in a thrilling finish.

Briones earned his first tournament win of the season as he improved to 22-11. Earlier in the day, Briones defeated Gabe Cameron of Person 6-3.

After clinching the Central Conference regular season championship two weeks ago, the Red Wolves appeared set to repeat as tournament champions. But Person scored three pins in the heavier weight classes to close out the day with 187 points. Cedar Ridge, with four first-place finishes, came in second at 179.5 points. Southern Alamance finished third at 148 points.

Two Red Wolves defended their individual conference titles from 2023, while a senior came through with his first conference title.

Senior Kaden Tatro continued his march towards the all-time school wins record by easily taking the 165-pound championship. Tatro, who now has 154 career wins, defeated James Rose of Person by tech fall 18-1 in four minutes. In the semifinals, Tatro pinned Chris Solomon of Eastern Alamance in 1:58.

Tatro is 45-4 this season with 21 pins and 16 technical falls. He how has 154 career wins. The all-time record is held by Chandler Collins at 166 wins.

Tatro won the 182-pound conference championship last year, beating Northwood’s Ethan Kuball 8-3 in the championship match.

At 120 pounds, junior Pierce Prescod pinned Orange’s Adrian Sierra in 1:30 in the championship match. Prescod pinned Pedro Manuel Ramos of Walter Williams in 3:04 in the semifinals. This season, Prescod has a 41-9 record with 31 pins, which leads the team. Last week, during senior night at Cedar Ridge, Prescod won his 100th career match as a junior. He now has 104 career wins. He is now three wins behind Ethan Knapp for sixth place on the all-time school career wins list.

At 150 pounds, senior Angus Pritchard captured the championship. A year after not placing in the 170-pound conference tournament, Pritchard scored a major decision over Southern Alamance’s Andrew Dudley 15-7 to take his first conference title.

Pritchard, 21-9 this season with ten pins, pinned Orange’s Evan Parker in the semifinals.

In addition to Cedar Ridge’s four conference champions, they had four others place in the top three in their weight divisions.

Junior Ryan Rakouskas reached the championship match at 157-pound tournament. Rakouskas, who reached the state championships last year, pinned Addison Carey of Person in the semifinals. Jace Rich of Southern Alamance pinned Rakouskas in the title match. Rakouskas is 29-11 with 23 pins this year.

At heavyweight, Aaron Olivares extended his streak with his eighth straight pinfall win in the semifinals by beating Luke White of Southern Alamance. Person’s Trevquan Gary defeated Olivares for the championship. At one point this year, Olivares was 8-9. Now, he goes into this weekend’s State Dual Team Tournament playoff match with a mark of 24-17 with 19 pins.

At 132 pounds, Graylon Collins pinned Hamden Wagner of Southern Alamance in 2:43 of the third place match. Collins is 23-14 with eleven pins in his first year at the varsity level.

Favio Jaramillo Esparza finished third at 106 pounds. He wrestled Person’s Ayden Dymes of Person twice, including in the third-place match. Esparza scratched out a 5-3 decision to improve his record to 31-10 with ten pins.

At 138 pounds, Jordin Blue pinned Dylan Maloney of Southern Alamance to win third place. Blue scored two pins in the tournament and has 13 wins this year.

Cedar Ridge is now waiting for the bracketing for the 32-team 3A State Dual Team Tournament. It will be their seventh appearance in the state tournament. The first and second rounds will be held on Saturday at a location to be determined.

BURLINGTON–If Braden Crawford was going to win the Central Conference championship, he had to finish it fast.

That was the message from his father after a blood stoppage of nearly five minutes at Walter Williams High School on Saturday afternoon. In the opening minute of the 126-pound tournament championship match against Southern Alamance’s Cameron Aiden, Crawford shot in for a takedown. Aiden wound up lifting Crawford up and briefly had his back over his shoulders. Crawford fell onto the mat face first and stayed there until the referee halted the action.

There was blood on the mat and Crawford didn’t move for a few seconds. It appeared possible that he would be unable to continue and Aiden would be declared the winner. But Crawford was fitted with a mask that shielded his nose.

If the match went beyond the first period, Crawford may not have been able to go on. So he aimed to finish it as quickly as he could. Despite his new head gear impeding his vision, Crawford scored a quick double-leg and earned the pin on Aiden at 1:28. He stayed long enough for the trophy presentation, then left for a nearby hospital to treat what was likely a broken nose.

Crawford, now 29-2 with 20 pins, earned his 20th pin of the season. He repeated as the 126-pound champion of the Central Conference. Last year at Orange High, Crawford pinned Williams Zy’Aire Priester of Williams in the championship match.

The championship round was filled with dramatic finishes. Orange’s Andre Hill officially defeated Zeke May of Western Alamance 4-3 to win the 175 pound championship.

If only it was that simple.

Hill, the top seed with an overall record of 39-2, ended the second period even with May at 2-2. Hill started the final frame from the bottom and finally earned an escape point with 1:20 left to go ahead 3-2. Hill nearly got a reversal but May escaped out of the circle. With ten seconds remaining, May shot in for a takedown and appeared to have a change in position that would have given him a 4-3 lead. Even Hill had a look of resignation on his face and he tried to balance out in the final seconds.

But the officials never made a signal for two points and the clock ran out, infuriating the Western Alamance bench who immediately protested. While Hill was declared the winner, he admitted afterwards that May was the rightful winner.

“Honestly, it probably should have been two,” Hill said. “I thought it was a bad call and I told him (May) that. I told his coaches that. I wanted to let him know he deserved credit for that.”

May defeated Hill 7-6 in the 170-pound championship last year at Orange.

On the day, Orange finished fourth in the team standings.

Juniors Logan Scarantino and Aidan Sierra each finished second in their respective weight classes. At 113 pounds, Scarantino pinned Gavin Smith of Western Alamacne in 30 seconds to earn a trip to the championship match. Tavern Moss of Person defeated Scarantino 7-1. Scarantino is 25-9 with 14 pins this season.

In the 120 pound tournament, Sierra opened by pinning Riley Neil of Southern Alamance in 4:16. Sierra nearly scored the pin in the opening period, scoring five back points in the second minute. Sierra led 7-0 after the opening two minutes.

Sierra held off Julian Combs of Person 9-8 in the semifinals. Combs opened with the first four points, including scoring the only near fall of the match. Sierra scored two reversals in the second period and led 8-4, but Combs scored a takedown just 17 seconds into the final stanza. Sierra got an escape to go up 9-6 and held on while Combs got a late takedown, but couldn’t press any further.

The Orange High swimming record book now looks really repetitive.

On the women’s side, it just says “Katie Belle Sikes’ over and over. Going into her Senior Night meet at the Orange County Sportsplex on Thursday night, the only school record that Sikes hadn’t broken was the 100 yard breaststroke.

Naturally, that one was the next to fall.

Racing in the pool where she has trained nearly every day and honed the skills that made her the most successful swimmer in Orange High history, Sikes set a new record of 1:06.53 in the breaststroke. Sikes now holds the school record in all eight individual events. Earlier this month, she set a new mark in the 100 yard butterfly.

Sikes also won the 200 yard freestyle (1:59.62) on Thursday.

In addition, it was also Senior Night for Cedar Ridge’s Nikhil Agans and Catherine Latham. Agans, who finished fifth in the 100 yard freestyle in the 3A State Championships last February, won the 100 on Senior Night at 51.61 seconds. His teammate, freshman Chris Seawell, came in second at 54:32. Both automatically qualified for the 3A Central Regional Championships.

Agans also qualified for regionals by winning the 100 yard breaststroke at 1:09.37. Orange’s Benjamin Sirgany came in third at 1:21.21.

Latham teamed with Sophia Stinnett, Hala Zafar and Quinn McCrimmon to finish second in the women’s 200 yard medley relay at 2:15.69, earning consideration for regionals.

In a quad meet that also included Western Alamance and Walter Williams, the Orange men’s and women’s teams each earned three head-to-head wins to close the Central Conference season undefeated. The Orange men defeated Williams 124-19, defeated Cedar Ridge 103-51 and handled Western Alamance 120-24.

The Orange women held off Cedar Ridge 103-63, defeated Williams 104-40, and routed Western Alamance 109-30.

The Cedar Ridge men won over Williams 82-26 and defeated Western Alamance 77-34. The Cedar Ridge women defeated Williams 103-49 and won over Western Alamance 103-45.

For the Orange men, senior Nick Baczara teamed with Luke Roman, Ayden Twiddy and Alex Andre to win two relay events: the 400 yard freestyle and 200 yard medley relay. In both cases, they qualified for regionals

Boczara also won the 200 yard freestyle at 2:04.59.

Orange junior Alex Andre captured two first place finishes individually. He touched the wall first in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:04.69. He also won the 50 yard freestyle at 24.06 seconds, beating out Western Alamance’s Eamon Hipps (24.30). Chris Seawell of Cedar Ridge came in third (24.88), also qualifying for regionals.

Last season, Andre finished third in the 500 yard freestyle in the state championships.

Orange’s Ayden Twiddy won the 500 yard freestyle at 5:49.23.

Orange junior Luke Roman captured the 100 yard backstroke at 58.26. Last year, Roman finished 4th in the 200 yard freestyle in the state championships.

The Cedar Ridge Men’s 200 yard freestyle relay team qualified for regionals and finished first on the night. Agans, Phillip Cauwels, Jacob Olmstead and Seawell came in at 1:43.25. Orange’s team of Noah Jones, Colin Wuthrich, Andrew Jouannet and Dylan Cowan finished 2nd at 1:46.21.

Orange women’s senior Riley White won two events. She captured the 50 yard freestyle (26:09) and the 200 yard individual medley (2:19.00), earning spots in regional for both events.

Cedar Ridge junior Sophia Stinnett, a junior who finished sixth in the 2023 state championships in the 500 yard freestyle, won the 100 yard freestyle at 57.54 seconds.

Orange junior Piper White won the 100 yard butterfly at 1:04.33. Cedar Ridge’s Quinn McCrimmon finished second at 1:06.11, while Orange’s Zoe Jones finished 3rd.

The Cedar Ridge women’s 200 yard freestyle relay team of Sarah Latham, McCrimmon, Zafar and Stinnett won the event and earned a spot in regionals at 1:55.26. Orange’s Claudia Sadgrove, Ainsley Rasinske, Molly Kruse and Zoe Jones came in 2nd at 1:59.81.

The Orange women’s relay team of Sikes, Ainsley Rasinske, Piper While and Riley White, who won the state championship in the 200 yard freestyle relay last year, won the 400 yard freestyle on Senior Night at 4:04.01. Cedar Ridge’s Catherine Latham, Sarah Latham, Sierra Godfrey and Emily Habib finished seconds.