Cedar Ridge High School

In Red Wolves Gymnasium on January 27, 2021, the Orange women’s basketball team entered a barren, desolate Red Wolves Gymnasium to face its crosstown rival.

There were no fans allowed inside because America was still frozen in the pandemic. The sounds from the mouths of coaches B.J. Condron of Orange and William Dobbs of Cedar Ridge, along with the players, were muffled because they were wearing masks. Cedar Ridge suited up only five players, and one of those fouled out in the fourth quarter.

Needless to say, Orange, which suited up eleven players, won by the score of 52-13. Though then-Cedar Ridge principal Carlos Ramirez applauded his team after the buzzer sounded, it was the textbook definition of bleak.

Two of those five players who suited up for Cedar Ridge that day, and forced to play the entire 32 minutes simply because of necessity, were freshmen Cameron and Cierra Copeland.

Four years later, the twin sisters started as the Red Wolves women’s basketball team carried out a milestone much more to its liking.

For the first time since 2014, the Red Wolves completed a season sweep of crosstown rival Orange with a 37-32 victory inside a much more crowded Red Wolves Gymnasium on Friday night. Cedar Ridge senior Amiyah Ware scored 15 points to help the Red Wolves finish the game on a 15-5 run.

Cedar Ridge improved to 5-4 in the Central Conference. They’re currently a half-game ahead of Walter Williams for third place and now hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Orange, which goes a long way to helping the Red Wolves host a game in the Central Conference Tournament.

Orange (10-9, 4-5), which was tied with Western Alamance for first place in the Central Conference two weeks ago, dropped its fourth straight game.

Addie Atkins led Orange with 12 points.

In the opening minutes of the third quarter, it appeared that Orange would avenge its overtime loss to the Red Wolves from January 10. The Red Wolves missed its first six shots from the field in the second half. Atkins drained a 3-pointer with 4:58 remaining in the third quarter off a pass from Evelyn George to put the Lady Panthers ahead 26-17. Cedar Ridge point guard Sarah Utley started the comeback with a running one-hander over the outstretched arms of Natalie Robertson from the right baseline. After a shot by Orange’s Shannon Murphy rimmed out, Utley came down the floor and sank a three-pointer from the top of the floor to cut the Red Wolves deficit to 26-22, leading to an Orange timeout.

The turning point came late in the third quarter when Orange center Marshea Byrd, who finished with eleven rebounds, had a stickback attempted that nearly balanced on the front of the rim before it fell off. Cedar Ridge’s Jamee Watson threw a gorgeous bounce pass that avoided the right baseline and found center Addie Reid, who banked in a shot while getting fouled by Byrd. That cut Orange’s lead to 27-25 at the end of the quarter.

Ware started the fourth quarter with a baseline drive push shot off a pass from Watson that beat Orange’s 1-2-2 zone press. Then Watson drained a jumper from the top of the key to give Cedar Ridge its first lead since it was 10-8. Ware grabbed a defensive rebound following a subsequent Orange miss and eventually found Kate Finnegan for a 19-footer to give the Red Wolves a 30-27 lead.

Orange’s Maura McMurtry sank a 15-footer over Watson with 4:27 remaining, but Cedar Ridge kept the Panthers scoreless for the next four minutes. Ware rebounded her own miss and scored on a short baseline jumper, then followed with a deep scoop shot that banked in high off the window.

Byrd’s stickback shot with 16 seconds remaining gave Orange a fleeting hope, but Reid erased that with two free throws in the waning seconds.

Cedar Ridge, which improved to 11-9, travels to Eastern Alamance on Tuesday. The Red Wolves eleven wins are the most for the team since the 2017-2018 season, when they finished 14-11.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior men’s basketball guard Landon Dalehite. In January, Dalehite spearheaded the Red Wolves to two upset wins. On January 2, Dalehite scored 12 points as the Red Wolves upset Person 48-41 at Red Wolves Gymnasium. With Person leading 38-34, Dalehite drained a 3-pointer with 4:07 remaining in the fourth quarter. From that point forward, Person didn’t score agains as the Red Wolves gained a critical Central Conference win. The following week, Cedar Ridge upset previously undefeated Chatham Central 53-52 in overtime. Dalehite scored seven points. On Tuesday night, Dalehite led Cedar Ridge in scoring with 15 points. Since Christmas, the Red Wolves haven’t had all hands on decks because of injuries, illness and defections. But Dalehite has been there at every game. The son of Danny and Beth Dalehite, Landon is a two-sport athlete. After basketball season ends, Landon will suit up to play left field for the Cedar Ridge baseball team. Last year, Dalehite was a starter for a Cedar Ridge team that earned an automatic bid to the 3A State Playoffs. Dalehite’s sister, Tori, was a two-time Big 8 Conference champion in softball who also played volleyball and basketball at Cedar Ridge. She’s entering her senior year at UNC Greensboro. Dalehite will celebrate senior night later this month with plans to pull more upsets on the hardwood before his time is done. 

Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week: Landon Dalehite

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Swimming is unique in the way it bonds Cedar Ridge and Orange participants. For one thing, the competitors usually practice together many winter mornings at the Orange County Sportsplex. Perhaps that’s why when the Central Conference Championships were held last Thursday at the Orange County Sportsplex, the relay teams for Cedar Ridge and Orange asked to do the post-meet interview together. It was a victorious night for both relay teams. Cedar Ridge’s 200 yard freestyle relay team of Phillip Cauwels, Jacob Olmstead, Christopher Seawell and Nikhil Agans won the conference championship with a time of 1:42.33. Cauwels, Olmstead, Seawell and Agans automatically qualified for the 3A Central Regionals, which will be held this Saturday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Orange’s 200 yard medley team of Alex Andre, Luke Roman, Nick Baczara and Ayden Twiddy won two conference championships. They captured the 200 yard medley relay, finishing at 1:53.13. Andre, Roman, Baczara and Twiddy also won the 400 yard freestyle relay at 3:38.46. It was a huge night for several individual swimmers. Roman, a junior, was named the Central Conference Male Swimmer of the Year for the second time in his career. Cedar Ridge’s Seawell, a freshman, won his first individual conference title in the 50 yard freestyle at 25.24 seconds. Baczara and Andre each won two individual championships. 

Cedar Ridge and Orange’s men’s swimming relay team’s talk their Central Conference championships

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As the dual season ends for the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves wrestling team, they can take pride in the fact they are the first of its kind.

They were the first team in school history to reach the state quarterfinals in the 3A State Dual Team Playoffs. They were the first Red Wolf team since 2010 to win a match in the state dual playoffs. They were the first Cedar Ridge team to ever beat Orange in a dual meet and just the second team in school history to win a regular season conference championship.

The Jacksonville Cardinals defeated the Red Wolves 49-27 in the 3A State Dual Quarterfinals on Wednesday night in Jacksonville. Later that night, Union Pines would claim its third consecutive 3A Eastern Regional championship when they defeated the Cardinals 47-18.

Union Pines will face Eastern Guilford for the 3A State Championship at Novant Fieldhouse in Greensboro on Saturday.

Cedar Ridge ends the dual team season 18-9.

Red Wolf senior James Este-Wittinger opened the night with a 6-4 decision over Alexander Perry to give Cedar Ridge a 3-0 lead. Este-Wittinger will go into the 3A Mideast Regionals with a 31-11 record. At heavyweight, Jacksonville’s Eteuati Taula pinned Aaron Olivares in 3:04. It was only the third loss in the last 12 matches for Olivares.

At 106 pounds, Cedar Ridge’s Favio Jaramillo Esparza pinned James Wernimont in 3:53 to give the Red Wolves a 9-6 lead. Cole Hunt of Jacksonville pinned Trevor Long at 113 pounds, but Cedar Ridge’s Pierce Prescod pinned Maxwell David in 2:18. Prescod leads the team with 33 pins this year with an overall record of 44-9.

Jacksonville dominated the middleweight classes with five straight wins. Gavin Nipper claimed a 9-3 decision over Nathan Vendura at 126 pounds to even the match at 15-15. The Cardinals’ Gavin Costillo (132), Mason McMullen (138) and Joseph Gabriel (144) all claimed pins. At 150 pounds, Brock Smith earned a major decision over Angus Pritchard 13-5, vaulting the Cardinals ahead 38-15 with four matches remaining.

Cedar Ridge junior Ryan Rakouskas pinned Anthony Campbell in 1:20. Rakouskas is now 32-11 after his 94th career win.

At 165 pounds, Kaden Tatro pinned Ethan McWaters in 51 seconds. Jacksonville’s Jonathan Moses pinned Shea Spiller to clinch the match for the Cardinals.

Next up for Cedar Ridge will be the Women’s Mideast Regionals on Friday and Saturday at Jack Britt High School in Fayetteville. The Red Wolves’ Zoey Moreno will try to reach the 3A State Women’s Individual Championships after barely missing out last year.

This weekend, Cedar Ridge’s 400 yard freestyle relay team will compete in the 3A Central Regional Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Last Wednesday in the Central Conference Championships at the Orange County Sportsplex, the team of Quinn McCrimmon, Sophia Stinnett, Sierra Godfrey and Hala Zafar claimed the conference title in the 400 yard freestyle relay, ending with a time of 4:19.23. Stinnett, a junior, spam the anchor leg in 27.19 seconds, beating Western Alamance’s Adriana Carmon to the wall. McCrimmon, who opened for Cedar Ridge, captured the conference championship in the 100 yard butterfly earlier in the night. McCrimmon finished at 1:04.66. Last year, McCrimmon won the conference championship in the 200 yard individual medley. Stinnett, a junior, claimed an individual conference championship for the third year in a row. She won the 500 yard freestyle for the first time in her career, closing with a time of 5:31.96. In 2022 and 2023, Stinnett won the conference championship in the 200 yard freestyle. McCrimmon also finished with the silver medal in the 200 yard individual medley.  Zafar, a sophomore, came away with the bronze medal in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:25.81. The championship by the relay team helped the Cedar Ridge women’s swimming team finished second in the Central Conference team standing. The 3A Central Regional championships will get underway at 4 o’clock on Saturday afternoon.

Cedar Ridge’s McCrimmon, Zafar, Stinnett & Godfrey talk winning the conference 400 relay title

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Everything that Cedar Ridge wrestling has ever accomplished, they’ve done the hard way.

After two decades competing in the long shadow of Orange High, one of the most established programs in North Carolina, the Red Wolves broke through this winter. They won the Central Conference regular season championship, its’ first league title as a 3A team.

However, their first trip to the 3A State Dual Team Tournament wouldn’t be a short drive up the road. Instead, Currituck County, the champions of the Northeastern Coastal Conference, finished the regular season 23-0, ranked #10 in the final dual team rankings.

Which meant the Red Wolves, which earned the #6 seed for the tournament, would drive four hours by bus on Saturday afternoon to the upper northeast corner of the state. Joining them would be Central Conference rival Person and Carrboro.

It was a long way to go, but by the end of the day, an exhausted Red Wolves team returned home late on Saturday night as the first Cedar Ridge wrestling team to ever reach the 3A State Dual Team quarterfinals.

Cedar Ridge started the day with a 70-7 win over Carrboro. On the adjacent mat inside Knights Gymnasium, the Red Wolves watched on as Person stunned Currituck 40-37. The Rockets’ Gavin Jones pinned Kurtis Spruill to vault the Rockets ahead in the final match and hand the Knights its first loss of the year. The match had five ties and four lead changes.

At the end of the day, Cedar Ridge drove a total of 448 miles to face a conference opponent that’s ordinarily about a 35-minute drive away from Hillsborough. But it would be worth it.

The Red Wolves blended youth with experience to defeat the Rockets 45-33 and advance to the state quarterfinals.

On Wednesday night, Cedar Ridge will face Jacksonville in the round of eight at Jacksonville High School. On the opposite mat, defending 3A Eastern Regional Champion Union Pines faces Croatan. The regional championship match will immediately follow.

While Cedar Ridge had already defeated Person 45-30 on November 21 in Hillsborough, that was a lifetime ago in wrestling circles.

On Saturday, the lead changed four times in the opening seven matches. it was freshman Alejandro Briones who put the Red Wolves ahead for good with a pin over Gabe Cameron in a dual match that had 12 pins and only two decisions. Briones, coming off his championship at 144 pounds in the Central Conference tournament, defeated Cameron to improve to 23-11 with his eleventh pin of the season.

It was the first of four consecutive pinfall victories for the Red Wolves.

Another conference champion, senior Angus Pritchard, pinned Ryan Dollar to give the Red Wolves some breathing room with a 27-18 overall lead. Pritchard, who won the 150 pound championship in the conference tournament, improved to 23-9 with his 12th pin of the season.

Junior Ryan Rakouskas pinned Addison Carey to improve the Red Wolves lead to 33-18. Kaden Tatro, who is now 2nd all-time in school history in wins, pinned Thai Meeler to improve to 47-4 with his 22nd pin this year.

Person’s James Rose (175) and Malakai Newman (190) each scored pins to pull the Rockets within 12 points at 39-27 with two matches remaining. The last of those matches was at heavyweight featuring Person’s Trevquan Gary, the conference champion and a potential All-State candidate.

Fortunately for Cedar Ridge, Joe O’Melia made the heavyweight match moot when he pinned Jones to ensure the win. Gary won by forfeit at heavyweight as Cedar Ridge exited Barco with a 45-33 victory.

The last time Cedar Ridge won a match in the state dual tournament, they defeated North Johnston 51-27 in the opening round of the 2A State Tournament in 2010. Later that night at Red Wolves Gymnasium, Topsail defeated the Red Wolves 53-25.

In the opening match against Carrboro, Cedar Ridge scored seven pins to cruise to victory. Heavyweight Aaron Olivares started with a pin over Milo Thornton. Olivares improved to 25-17 with his 20th pin. Olivares has pinfall victories in nine of his last ten matches. At 113 pounds, Cedar Ridge’s Trevor Long scored his fourth pin of the year against Penelope Tovar. At 132 pounds, Graylon Collins earned a major decision over Ajax Hopler 8-0 to put the Red Wolves ahead 22-7. At 144 pound,  Briones pinned Ajax Hopler.

That pin officially put Cedar Ridge into the second round.

Pritchard pinned Zach Westrick at 150 pounds. Rakouskas pinned Shiloh Smith at 157. Rakouskas, who now has 93 career wins, is 31-11 this season.

Pierce Prescod, Jordin Blue, Shea Spiller and James Este-Wittinger all earned forfeit wins. Tatro pinned Spencer Crawley.

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

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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

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