Cedar Ridge Football

Trenton Gill: Among various media outlets connected with the Chicago Bears, the prevalent thought is that Gill will be the team’s new punter when the regular season starts on September 11 against the San Francisco 49ers. On Saturday, Gill suited up for the Bears for the first time against the Kansas City Chiefs in its preseason opener. Playing on a surface at Solider Field that garnered criticism from the National Football League Players Association, Gill averaged 42.6 yards on seven punts. USA Today reporter Alyssa Barbieri said that Gill “played like a seasoned veteran.” Gill had a coffin corner punt that pinned the Chiefs inside at their own 3-yard line. In addition, Gill had three punts downed inside the 20-yard line. It could have easily been four, but the Bears didn’t down the ball before it tumbled into the end zone. Gill is also serving as the team’s holder on field goals and extra points for placekicker Cairo Santos. The Bears will play its second preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night at Lumen Field.

Bryse Wilson: On Friday night, Wilson started for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Wilson, opposed by the Giants’ Carlos Rodon, suffered the loss as the Giants won 5-3. In five-and-one-thirds innings, Wilson gave up four runs off six hits. He struck out one and walked one. It was Wilson’s 13th start of the season. He is now 2-7 with a 5.93 ERA. Leading up to the start against the Giants, Wilson had thrown 32.1 innings and compiled a 3.34 ERA.

Mia Davidson: In week three of Athletes Unlimited softball, Davidson played for Team McCleney during a three-game series at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, IL. In the opening game on Friday, Team Jaquish defeated Team McCleney 7-2. Davidson had three walks in the game. Under the Athletes Unlimited format, players are awarded eight points for a walk and ten points for every inning their team won. Davidson earned 34 points on the night. On Saturday, Team McCleney defeated Team Chidester 10-1. Davidson went 1-4 with an RBI single to right field in the second inning. Davidson came away with 120 points (10 for the single, 50 as a member of the winning team, 60 points for winning six innings). On Sunday, Davidson had a pop-up double down the right field line as Team McCleney came from behind to defeat Team Mulipola 9-6. Davidson finished 1-for-3 with a double. She scored two runs and finished the night with 110 points (20 for the double, 50 for the win and 40 inning point). Currently, Davidson is 18th in the individual standings with 782 points. On Monday night, Davidson was drafted to Team McCleney once again. She will play on Friday night against Team Jaquish at 6:30.

Kayla Hodges: Hodges, who transferred to Virginia Commonwealth after playing four years for the Elon women’s soccer team, played during the Rams’ 2-0 exhibition win over Old Dominion last week. Virginia Commonwealth will start its regular season at James Madison on Thursday night. This will be James Madison’s first game in any sport as a member of the Sun Belt Conference after jumping from the Colonial Athletic Association during the summer.

Photo courtesy of chicagobears.com

“Are you ready to become a Chicago Bear?” asked Ryan Poles.

Those were the first words that Trenton Gill heard from the Chicago Bears General Manager when he picked up the phone inside his parents’ home in Hillsborough on April 30.

“Yes, sir,” Gill said. “I’m excited to be a Chicago Bear.”

After a one-minute conversation, Gill was officially the 255th overall selection in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He was one of four punters selected.

“Everyone got their cameras out in my home when they announced it on television,” Gill said. “They started looking at me, then they looked at the TV. Everyone knows how hard I’ve worked and all about my situation. Just to see them see how it paid off for me was very rewarding. It was a cool experience.”

By the start of May, Gill had already started in rookie mini-camp for a position that’s wide open.

Pat O’Connell, who had been the Bears’ punter for eight seasons, signed a $4 million free agent deal with the Green Bay Packers in March.

Now, Gill is competing to be the man to replace O’Connell, who was selected by the Bears in the sixth-round of the 2014 NFL Draft. In a promising sign, the Bears waived journeyman punter Ryan Winslow on May 17.

As he comes upon the five-year anniversary of his graduation from Cedar Ridge High School, Gill has already accomplished many things that no other Red Wolf has ever done.

He is the first Cedar Ridge football player to ever be selected in the NFL Draft. Though Chicago has struggled in recent years, there’s no other place he would rather be.

“Before the draft, we had a big board of the teams that we wanted to go to,” Gill told Hillsboroughsports.com the day after he was drafted. “We wanted the best opportunity. Chicago was number one the whole time. It fell in my favor they took me in the draft.”

On May 6, Gill signed a four-year contract with the Bears. Three weeks ago, Gill participated in the first of several organized team activities scheduled for this summer during a period of transition for the venerable franchise.

The tumultuous tenure of former head coach Matt Nagy ended in January after the Bears went 6-11 in 2021. It was the culmination of a total overhaul for a team that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2010. Poles was hired on January 25 as the new General Manager. Two days later, former Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus was named the Bears’ 17th head coach.

In February, Richard Hightower was added to Eberflus’ staff as special teams coordinator. Eberflus has spent the previous five seasons as the special teams coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers.

“I really like their special teams coordinator,” Gill said. “We got along really well when we spoke. Their philosophy matches my philosophy with the kicking game. There’s a real big opportunity there. They don’t have a real established starter right now. I think I can go in there right now and be the day 1 starter.”

Gill’s rise to NFL draft boards came after a spectacular redshirt junior season at N.C. State. He left Raleigh as the Wolfpack’s all-time leader in career punting average at 46.3 yards. During the 2020 season, Gill was third in the Atlantic Coast Conference with 44.9 yards per punt. He averaged a career-high 54.7 yards on three punts at UNC in 2020 and was named to the All-ACC Academic Team.

Gill’s career at N.C. State ended with exhilaration and disappointment. On November 26, Gill’s final home game at Carter-Finley Stadium ended with a raucous comeback as the Wolfpack stunned archrival North Carolina 34-30 after trailing 30-21 with 2:04 remaining. It was the first time the Wolfpack defeated a Mack Brown-coached UNC team since 1992.

“I love to throw that game on and watch it,” Gill said with a chuckle. “It’s always a great ending. I felt like, as a team, we knew we were going to come back and win that game. We did it at Clemson. We knew we were a better team than Carolina. We knew we could finish games and once we started scoring, it was over for them. We were just certain it was going to happen.”

Gill was supposed to conclude his career in the Holiday Bowl against UCLA. Gill and the rest of the Wolfpack traveling team had already journeyed across the country to San Diego, only to learn just hours before kickoff that the game had been canceled because of a COVID breakout among the Bruins’ players.

As he received the phone call from Poles at his home in Hillsborough with his parents, Gill didn’t necessarily reach the end of a lifelong mission. It was just the reward of plenty of sweat spilled along the way, starting as an adolescent on the playgrounds along N.C. 86.

“I’ve never really thought about being an NFL punter,” Gill said. “I’ve always tried to work really hard and let that take me wherever it’s going to take me. I’ve never thought I would make it to this point. It’s a reality now that I am an NFL punter. But I never really was like ‘This is what I have to do.’ I just kind of enjoyed doing it, enjoyed working hard and this is where it took me.”

When Gill was at Cedar Ridge, he was a three-sport athlete. He played two sports simultaneously during the fall, along with men’s tennis in the spring under head coach Lennie Corbett.

When August rolled around, Gill would play for the Red Wolves soccer team under then-head coach Chris Walker. On Friday nights, he would wear the #99 jersey (#11 in his sophomore season) under head coaches Scott Loosemore and Clay Jones to serve as the triple-threat kicker for the football team.

“Everyone was really nice at Cedar Ridge,” Gill said. “They really helped me build me up to where I was when I started at N.C. State. I wouldn’t have been the same player at N.C. State without my upbringing through Cedar Ridge and Hillsborough. At Stanback Middle School and New Hope Elementary. All of those places made me what I am today. And without that, I would be a totally different person.”

In his senior year, Gill led the Red Wolves soccer team with 16 goals, which led to Cedar Ridge making the 3A State Playoffs. He also played on the last Cedar Ridge football team to have a winning season in 2016, beating Northern Vance in the season-finale in Henderson to finish 6-5.

He hasn’t forgotten Hillsborough. During his time at N.C. State, Gill raised $12,000 for new playground equipment for New Hope Elementary School. Unbeknownst to him as a fifth-grader, it was the place where Gill started that has led him to the NFL.

“What I learned at Cedar Ridge, at Stanback and at New Hope will be instilled within me,” Gill said. “I’ll try to keep promoting Cedar Ridge, no matter where I’m at. I’d love to do some fundraising for Cedar Ridge football someday and help them out. That’s the way I started my football career and if I could help out future student-athletes at Cedar Ridge, that would be great.”

Last month, Trenton Gill became the first former Cedar Ridge football player to be named first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference.

Now, he will try to be the first Cedar Ridge player to reach the National Football League.

Gill formally announced plans to enter the NFL Draft on Twitter last week. He just completed his redshirt junior season with the Wolfpack and had another season of eligibility remaining.

Gill’s career at N.C. State ended in bizarre fashion. The Wolfpack were slated to face UCLA in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on December 28. Only five hours before kickoff, the game was canceled because of an excessive amount of positive COVID-19 cases within the Bruins program. N.C. State coach Dave Doeren, still looking none too happy, accepted the Holiday Bowl trophy from event officials the next day.

Two days later, Gill announced his intentions for the NFL Draft.

“Throughout my five years of playing football here at N.C. State, I have grown a tremendous amount,” Gill tweeted. “I appreciate all of the love and support from my family, friends, teammates, coaches, and fans throughout my career. With that, I would like to announce that I am declaring for the NFL Draft and will pursue my lifelong dream of playing in the NFL. Thank you Wolfpack Nation!”

This year, Gill led the ACC with a 45-yard per punt average. He entered this season the all-time leader in N.C. State history with a 46.3 yard per punt mark, which was the second-best average among returning punters in the ACC.

It was the second time in his career that Gill led the ACC in yards per punt. As a sophomore in 2019, Gill set a school-record with a 47.6 yards per punt average. The previous mark was set in 1974. He amassed 2,663 punt yards overall, the 11th highest single-season mark in school history. As a sophomore, he was named third-team All-ACC.

This season, Gill had two punts over 60 yards. Against Boston College on October 16, he had a 65-yard punt, a career long. Against Florida State on November 6 in Tallahassee, Gill had a 60-yard punt.

Overall, Gill had 23 punts over fifty yards in 2021. Of his 70 attempts, 31 were downed inside the 20-yard line. In his final game, a wild and memorable win over North Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on November 26, Gill had five punts, two of which were downed inside the 20-yard line. His average of 37 yards was actually his second-lowest of the season. His long agains the Tar Heels was 54 yards.

Gill entered N.C. State after being named All-Big 8 Conference in two different sports at Cedar Ridge. He played soccer under head coach Chris Walker. In football, he was a punter and occasional linebacker under Scott Loosemore.

After redshirting in 2017, Gill played only in the season-finale against East Carolina the following year, a 58-3 Wolfpack blowout that occurred just days after the Pirates fired Scottie Montgomery as head coach. Against ECU, he had three kickoffs.

Gill won the starting punting job in 2019 and never surrendered it. His first game as punter also came against East Carolina on August 31, 2019.

While playing alongside another Hillsborough product, former Orange High linebacker Payton Wilson, Gill has maintained close ties to Hillsborough. In addition to his duties with the Wolfpack, Gill started a fundraiser for new playground equipment at New Hope Elementary School. Last week, Gill announced that he had raised enough money to buy a new slide along with hundreds of new balls.

Last Saturday, there was a special ribbon cutting ceremony that included New Hope Elementary Principal Dr. Meredith Miller.

Photo by Gopack.com

Trenton Gill: The former Cedar Ridge punter was named first-team All-ACC last week following the Wolfpack’s win over North Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium. Gill led the Atlantic Coast Conference in punting average for the second time in his career. He also led the league in punts placed inside the 20-yard line with 31, which is nine more than any other punter in the league. The Wolfpack, which is now ranked #18 in the Associated Press poll, accepted a bid to play in the Holiday Bowl on December 28 in San Diego. The Wolfpack will face UCLA at Petco Park. In the Wolfpack’s 34-30 win over UNC, Gill had five punts for an average of 37 yards. His longest was 54 yards. Two were downed inside the 20-yard line.

Keshawn Thompson: After leading the Campbell football team in tackles this season, Thompson was named to the All-Academic District III team by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Thompson, who is a graduate student working towards his MBA, led Campbell with 80 tackles in 2021.

Emerson Talley: The Lenoir-Rhyne women’s soccer team has reached the Final Four of the NCAA Division II Tournament. On Friday, the Bears defeated #18 Flagler 1-1, prevailing on penalty kicks 4-2 to win the Southeast Regional Championship for just the second time in school history. On Sunday, Lenoir-Rhyne advanced to the Final Four winning in penalties 4-3 over Florida Tech at UWF Soccer Complex in Pensacola, FL. It’s the first time ever that the Bears have reached the Final Four. Lenoir-Rhyne, which is now 12-5-5, will face #1 Grand Valley State at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Thursday afternoon.

Braden Homsey: Homsey finished fourth at 197 pounds in the Arms Software Patriot Open at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia on Saturday. Homsey, competing for Division III Ferrum College, faced Division I opposition. Homsey opened with a 5-3 win over Azeem Bell of Rider University. He advanced to the quarterfinals with a Brock Del Signor of the Wolfpack Wrestling Club. The top seed, Cole Urbas of the University of Pennsylvania, defeated Homsey 16-1. Campbell University’s Levi Hopkins defeated Homsey 12-7 in the third place match. Homsey was the only wrestler from Ferrum College to place in the tournament.

Joey McMullin: The Sandhills Community College men’s basketball team defeated Patrick Henry Community College 95-77 in Pinehurst on Wednesday. McMullin came off the bench to play 14 minutes, where he compiled nine points, all from 3-point range. He was 3-of-4 from downtown and 3-of-9 from the field. He also had four rebounds. On Saturday, the Flyers defeated Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute 75-67 in Pinehurst. McMullin came off the bench to score six points and grab one rebound in 16 minutes. The Flyers, which are ranked #11 in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association, are now 7-4. Caldwell Community College came into the game undefeated. On November 23, Spartanburg Methodist defeated Sandhills 103-77. McMullin started for the Flyers and scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds. Sandhills will return to action tonight (Monday) to face the Pfeiffer junior varsity squad.

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.

“Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl. I got a feelin’.”

That would be the song that Lou Geary would sing during loose moments in his woodshop class at what was then called Stanford Middle School. It was a trademark tune crooned by Pittsburgh fans almost annually as fall gave way to winter and head coach Chuck Noll took a franchise that was once the laughing stock of the National Football League (one playoff team from 1945-1971) and led them to four Super Bowl championships in six seasons.

The names that shaped those championship teams and made the Pittsburgh Steelers a worldwide brand name are synonymous with football. Terry Bradshaw. Joe Greene. Franco Harris. Jack Lambert. John Stallworth. Lynn Swann.

They all captured Geary’s imagination as he played under coach Bud Billiard at Brooke High School in Weilsburg, West Virginia. Just as Noll built the Steelers franchise from the ground up starting in the early 1970s, Geary did the same thing with various athletic programs at Stanford and at Cedar Ridge High School in the subsequent three decades. Like Noll, Geary was a championship coach many times over.

On October 31, Geary passed away in New Bern after a four-year battle with dementia at the age of 63. Funeral services will be held today at Hillsborough United Methodist Church at 3PM.

Donald Lou Geary graduated from Fairmont State University, where he was enshrined in the school’s Hall of Fame in 2020 for football and wrestling. He was a four-year letterman in football with the Falcons, along with a two-year letterman for wrestling. After graduation, he journeyed to Hillsborough with his wife and was hired by Stanford Principal Leonard Mayo as an industrial arts teacher. Geary was the football, wrestling and track & field coach at Stanford from 1987 until 2000. The Chargers became a dominant Wednesday afternoon institution in northern Orange County, often playing games at Auman Stadium and collecting one Orange-Person Athletic Conference championship after another. Geary’s two oldest sons, Mack and Sam, played at Stanford for their father.

“He wanted people to love the game just as much as he did,” said Jake Geary, his youngest son. “He shared that passion with anybody who even had the smallest interest in it. His high school coach, Bud Billiard, was a tremendous influence on him. He was just as passionate as many father was. That’s where my father got his drive from.”

Stanford’s wrestling program was even more dominant. They went years without losing a dual match. Stanford was Orange High’s feeder school, which was part of the reason why Orange won 16 consecutive conference championships and five state championships under head coach Bobby Shriner.

“He loved Stanford,” said Jake, who played at Stanback. “He had a dynasty there. He was with his buddies at Stanford. He didn’t want to leave that until Mack, Sam and I got older and went on to high school.”

After one season as an assistant under former Orange football coach Bill Hynus in 2001, Geary was chosen by Cedar Ridge Athletic Director, Jim Pappas, to become the first head football coach at Cedar Ridge High School. Naturally, he would also be the Red Wolves’ first wrestling coach. In the midst of the summer of 2002, as officials prepared for the opening of Cedar Ridge, Geary and baseball coach Andy Simmons would pick up rocks off the field that would eventually become Cedar Ridge Stadium.

“It was a huge change of pace being at a higher level,” Jake said of his father’s transition to Cedar Ridge. “They started the program from scratch. Over that summer, I was right out there picking up rocks with my dad. One of his former players texted me the other day to remind me about that. He literally had to build that program from scratch.”

Geary took over the Cedar Ridge program in 2002 without any seniors. Within three years, they captured its first football conference championship.

At Cedar Ridge, Geary coached the greatest running back in school history, Devon Moore, who would go on to be a featured back for Appalachian State’s 2006 Division I National Championship team. Moore rushed for 86 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries as Appalachian defeated Massachusetts 28-17 in Chattanooga, TN to win the national championship. Moore rushed for nearly 6,000 yards and 42 touchdowns in his Cedar Ridge career, though Appalachian State and Wofford were the only schools to offer him a Division I scholarship.

In 2006, Cedar Ridge went 10-4 and reached the third round of the 2-AA State Playoffs. After playoff wins over Swansboro and Northwood, the Red Wolves lost to Bunn in the regional semifinals.

“That was one of the highlights of his career,” Jake said. “All those kids that stuck together and reaching the third round of the playoffs was high on his list.”

“He meant so much to this school,” said Simmons, now Cedar Ridge’s Athletic Director. “I came over with him from Orange. Just as incredible person. He touched so many lives in Hillsborough and surrounding places. Sometimes, there are just no words to describe what a person meant to so many. I think Coach Geary is one of those people.”

Jake was the 2010 2A North Carolina High School Athletic Association Shot Put champion at Cedar Ridge. He played football at East Carolina under head coach Ruffin McNeill after being recruited by Skip Holtz, now the head coach at Louisiana Tech. Jake Geary currently teaches at North Carolina Virtual Public Schools after four years at Broad Creek Middle School in Newport.

“He coached me just like he would anyone else on the team,” Jake said. “I always told people that I had to have it tougher because if I didn’t, people would say I was getting playing time just because I was the coach’s son. It was hard but I enjoyed having him as my coach. I didn’t just get it at practice, I got it at home, too.”

Geary left Cedar Ridge in 2010 to coach at Person High School, partly to get closer to a lake house that the family owned near Roxboro. They held annual Super Bowl parties there every winter, including Super Bowl XLIII, where Geary’s Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23.

Even after all the championships he won in Hillsborough, Geary never forgot that the greatest place on earth is home. In 2015, he returned to West Virginia as an assistant coach for East Fairmont High School’s football team, serving with his brother, John, the head coach. The following year, Lou became the head coach for the 2016 season before resigning and returning to North Carolina.

“He wasn’t even looking for a job,” Jake said. “His brother wound up calling him and asked if he wanted to do with him. He jumped all over that and they worked together. It was a young team and they were trying to build something together.”

In recent years, Geary had kept up with Cedar Ridge athletics. Jake says it was a topic of one of their final conversations at a memory care facility in New Bern, where Geary stayed since July.

“Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from people from West Virginia to North Carolina to Virginia,” Jake said. “Old coaches and teammates that I’ve never met before. All of them said the same thing. He loved the game and he took everybody under their wing and treated them exactly the same. He always had a smile on his face. It was amazing reading how many people he impacted.”

Photo by Averett University

Braden Homsey: Braden Homsey captured the 197-pound championship for Division III Ferrum College during the Averett Cougar Open at the Grant Center in Danville, VA on Saturday. Homsey defeated Jackson Shumate 16-1 in the 2nd round. In the quarterfinals, Homsey grabbed a major decision over Austin Suess of Southwest Virginia 11-2. In the semifinals, Homsey pinned William Headley of Liberty in 2:12. Homsey scored another technical fall in the championship match over William Baldwin of Averett 21-4. In a field of 20 teams, the Panthers finished third with 127 points.

Joey McMullin: The Sandhills Community College men’s basketball team defeated Hosanna Bible College 99-76 at The Hangar in Pinehurst last Monday. McMullin, who scored over 1,000 points in his Orange High career, scored a career-high 27 points for the Flyers. He shot 12-of-15 from the field, including two 3-pointers. On Wednesday, the Flyers defeated Guilford Technical Community College 106-99 in Greensboro. McMullin, who started, had 17 points and six rebounds. On Saturday, Wake Technical Community College defeated Sandhills 126-109 in Pinehurst. McMullin, who started and played 16 minutes, scored six points. He also added two rebounds and an assist. The Flyers are 4-2, 0-2 in Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association. They will play the Methodist University junior varsity squad in Fayetteville on Tuesday.

Connor Crabtree: The Richmond Spiders started its men’s basketball season with a a 70-60 victory over North Carolina Central in the Robins Center on Tuesday. Crabtree came off the bench and scored two points, grabbed one rebound and dished out two assists. On Friday, Utah State defeated Richmond 85-74 in the opening game of the Veterans Classic at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, MD. Crabtree had a stickleback basket to put Richmond in the lead 65-63 with 5:38 remaining, but the Aggies went on a 18-3 run to take control of the game. Crabtree scored six points and four rebounds in 14 minutes. Richmond hosts Georgia State on Tuesday night.

Trenton Gill: Former Cedar Ridge All-Conference punter Trenton Gill was named a co-Captain for #21 N.C. State’s game against #13 Wake Forest at Truist Field in Winston-Salem. In the highest-scoring game in 115 all-time matchups, the Demon Deacons defeated the Wolfpack 45-42. Gill had six punts for an average of 45 yards. Two punts were downed inside the 20-yard line. His longest was 52 yards, one of two punts over 50-yards. Gill also had seven kickoffs, six of which were touchbacks. The Wolfpack, who are now ranked #25 by the Associated Press, will host Syracuse at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on Saturday.

Keshawn Thompson: For the fifth time this year, Thompson led the Campbell football team in tackles. Thompson had ten tackles in the Camels’ 28-21 loss to Hampton at Barker-Lane Stadium in Buies Creek on Saturday. It was Thompson’s senior day. Campbell has lost five in a row and is now 3-7 overall, 2-4 in the Big South Conference. They will wrap up the season at Robert Morris on Saturday.

Adam Chnupa: The Elon football team defeated Towson 37-14 at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, MD on Saturday. It was the Phoenix’s fourth road win of the season. Chnupa played special teams and defense for the Phoenix, who improved to 5-5, 4-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Phoenix will wrap up the regular season against #25 Rhode Island at Rhodes Stadium in Elon on Saturday.

Emerson Talley: The Lenoir-Rhyne women’s soccer team received an at-large birth for the Division II NCAA Tournament. The Bears, which includes former Cedar Ridge forward Emerson Talley, will face Catawba in the opening round in Salisbury on Saturday at 6PM. Last week, the Bears lost to Queens 1-0 in double overtime in the semifinals of the South Atlantic Conference Tournament in Matthews. The Bears will enter the NCAA Tournament 11-5-2 overall.

Kate Burgess: The UNC rowing team finished its first official race of the season at the Rivanna Romp in Charlottesville, VA on Sunday afternoon. Burgess was aboard the 2V8+ boat, which finished 21st at 15:02.00. In the Varsity Four race, Burgess was aboard the 4V4+, which finished 24th at 17:21.8.

Bailey Lucas: Bailey Lucas’ career with the Meredith volleyball team has come to an end. The Avenging Angels were snubbed from the NCAA Division III volleyball tournament despite a 23-8 record and reaching the championship match of the USA South Athletic Conference tournament. This season, Lucas was 2nd on the team with 506 assists. She had 24 aces.