Orange High School

Last Friday night, the Orange men’s basketball team needed some parts to fall together in order to secure its first regular season conference championship in seven years. They needed to defeat Southern Alamance, plus had to have Person beat Eastern Alamance in Roxboro. Fortunately for Orange, the basketball gods smiled. The Panthers crushed the Patriots 93-39, while the Rockets rallied to beat the Eagles. While Orange wouldn’t celebrate the conference title until later since the Person game ended long after the Panthers were done, they did commemorate senior night. Ryan Honeycutt, Ryan Moss and Malykhai Justice were honored in a pregame ceremony. Honeycutt led the team with 8.8 rebounds per game before he suffered a broken thumb against Cedar Ridge on February 2. He also paced the Panthers shooting 58% from the field. Moss has been a member of the Panthers since his freshman year when players had to suit up in a mask due to the pandemic. In the past four years, Moss has been a steady outside shooter when coach Derryl Britt has needed a presence from deep. Justice joined the varsity team for this season just months after being selected All-Central Conference in football. Last season, Justice was tied for the team lead in sacks. Early in the season, as forward Coleman Cloer was nursing an injured ankle, Justice started several games. Orange will finish out the regular season against Eastern Alamance on Friday night in Mebane. They will open play in the Central Conference Tournament next Tuesday night in Roxboro.

Orange’s Ryan Honeycutt, Malykhai Justice & Ryan Moss discuss win on Senior Night

Last Friday night, the Orange men’s basketball team needed some parts to fall together in order to secure its first regular season conference championship in seven years. They needed to defeat Southern Alamance, plus had to have Person beat Eastern Alamance in Roxboro. Fortunately for Orange, the basketball gods smiled.

The Orange women’s basketball team has lived on the road for the past month. It’s last home game came against Eastern Alamance on January 23. Since then, the Lady Panthers have played in Burlington, Roxboro, Graham, Elon, at Cedar Ridge and in Durham. On Monday night, Orange never trailed in a wire-to-wire win over the Durham School of the Arts at venerable Sykes Gymnasium. Sophomore Shannon Murphy finished with 13 points, eleven rebounds and five assists as Orange improved to 12-10. Center Marshea Byrd had 13 points, four rebounds and four assists as the Lady Panthers built a 26-point lead at one point in the second half. Sophomore Natalie Roberson made her first start and came away with five points. Junior Evelyn George paced the Lady Panthers with 19 points and eleven rebounds. Last week, the Lady Panthers defeated Person in Roxboro 65-34. George led the Lady Panthers with 21 points, while sophomore Addie Atkins came away with 12 points. Orange will finish its regular season on the road, naturally, on Friday night in Mebane. They will face Eastern Alamance. Last year, Orange defeated the Eagles in Mebane in the opening round of the Central Conference Tournament. The Lady Panthers will open play in the Central Conference Tournament on Monday night with the team and location to be determined. 

No Title

The Orange women’s basketball team has lived on the road for the past month. It’s last home game came against Eastern Alamance on January 23. Since then, the Lady Panthers have played in Burlington, Roxboro, Graham, Elon, at Cedar Ridge and in Durham.

The 3A Mideast Wrestling Regional was an industrial shredder this year.

Of the 16 regionals across the state, the 3A Mideast was the only one that had both a dual team state champion (Union Pines) and the state runner-up (Eastern Guilford) in the same tournament. Throw in traditional powerhouses like Orange, Greensboro Dudley and Cape Fear and you have the makings of a field so deep, seeding nightmares became inevitable.

Orange senior Jared Hutchins earned the top-seed in the 132-pound tournament and survived, to the truest sense of the term, to win his first regional title at Union Pines High School in Cameron on Saturday.

In three dominant performances, Hutchins mowed through a deep field and scored a major decision over Logan Mitchell of Union Pines 14-6 in the championship match. Hutchins will be the #1 seed from the Mideast for the 3A State Championships, which will start Thursday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum.

This season, Hutchins won individual championships at the Eagle Invitational in Mebane and the Joe Via Memorial at South Stokes High in Walnut Cove.

It will be Hutchins third trip to the state championships. Hutchins, who is now 31-4 with 24 pins this season, finished 5th in the 2023 3A State Tournament. He reached the semifinals in the championship round after pinning Luke Connick, the 3A Eastern Regional champion, in the second round.

As a sophomore, Hutchins finished 28-10 and won two matches in the state tournament.

Hutchins, who eclipsed 100 career wins earlier this month, pinned Cristian Ramos of Douglas Byrd in 1:54 in the quarterfinals. On Saturday, Hutchins pinned Jameer Farmer of Person in 3:13 to advance to the final.

This season, Hutchins was a senior on an Orange team that had ten new starters. As a veteran, he remembered what it was like to receive daily lessons in the school of hard knocks from early days as a Panther.

“It made me better,” Hutchins said during the Tiger Holiday Classic in December. “It’s helped me get to where I am now. I want to place in the top three in the state tournament.”

Hutchins is one of three Orange grapplers to qualify for the state championships. At 126 pounds, junior Braden Crawford qualified for the second year in a row. At 175 pounds, senior Andre Hill also reached the state tournament for the second time.

Cedar Ridge, which had four wrestlers reach the state tournament in 2023, had a difficult day. Senior Kaden Tatro finished third in the in the 165-pound tournament, beating Hunter Macklin of Dudley 10-1 in the consolation final. It will be Tatro’s third trip to the state tournament.

Overall, Tatro won four matches in the regional tournament to put his career wins total at 159. He is now in sole possession of 2nd place in school history, having surpassed Josh Collins total of 151, set from 2001-2005. Chandler Collins holds the record of 166 wins.

Tatro reached the 182-pound regional final last year.

On Saturday, Tatro, seeded #2, faced Troy Shannon of Terry Sanford in the semifinals. Tatro led 4-2 going into the third period, but was penalized twice for stalling in the final two minutes. The second warning came with nine seconds remaining, which tied the match 4-4. Shannon got a takedown with five seconds remaining for the decisive points.

Hill, the #2 seed at 175 pounds, pinned Trenton Westbrook of Cape Fear in 2:34 in the opening round. Cameron Perryman of Dudley upset Hill in the quarterfinals. Hill had to win four matches on Saturday in order to take third place.

He scored two pins and two technical falls to punch his ticket to Greensboro. He pinned NaZiah Rice of Westover in 2;50 in the consolation final. Hill is 44-3 on the season with 29 pins.

Crawford reached the semifinals at 126 pounds after pinfall wins over Emanuel Garcia of Person and Hunter Hill of Harnett Central. Shawn Bass of Dudley never trailed in beating Crawford 4-1 in the semifinals. Crawford bounced back to defeat Jazten Hall of Fayetteville 71st 5-0 to officially reach the state tournament. In the 3rd place match, Joseph Lloyd of Union Pines defeated Crawford via pinfall in 2:42.

The depth of the field worked to the detriment of numerous competitors from Cedar Ridge and Orange.

Cedar Ridge junior Pierce Prescod came into the 120-pound tournament with a 44-9 record. If Prescod was in, say, the 3A West Regional, that record would have likely earned him a #3 seed (which is what Aydan Mull of Tusculum received with a 43-12 mark).

In the Mideast, Prescod got a #5 seed, where he faced Eastern Guilford’s Tremayne McNeely in the second round. McNeely won 5-1.

In 2023, Prescod controversially fell one match short of the state championships when his opponent, Carson Cori of South Johnston, claimed he couldn’t continue due to an injured back after it was returned that Prescod illegally slammed him. Prescod, with a 44-11 record, didn’t make it to Greensboro.

This year, Prescod also fell one match short of the state tournament. Facing Keaton Crawford of Union Pines, Prescod led 8-3 going into the final period. Crawford scored a takedown with 35 seconds remaining to even the match, then got a takedown 44 seconds into sudden victory to move on to Greensboro.

It was the final tournament for Cedar Ridge senior James Este-Wittinger, who reached the state tournament in 2023. Este-Wittinger reached the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Chevelle Cade of Westover 3-2 in the consolation quarterfinals.

CARY–It wasn’t the last lap of her life. Far from it.

But it was Katie Belle Sikes’ last lap as an Orange Panther. As Ainsley Rasinske approached her, Carrboro’s Ellie Hill had just put the Jaguars ahead by .11 of a second in the 200 yard freestyle relay 3A State Championship final. The capacity crowd roared as Rasinske yielded to Sikes one more time.

Sikes final anchor leg would be one to remember.

In lane four, she dove in the water just behind Carrboro’s Avery Shuping. Like a blue streak underneath the aqua water, she surged ahead almost effortlessly and completed 25 yards in just over eleven seconds. Within an instant, Orange went from trailing to leading comfortably.

25 yards later, Sikes touched the wall as a Panther just once more. In her last high school race, she clinched one final state championship.

If there was a way to freeze that moment for just a little longer, Sikes would have.

Orange, comprised of Sikes, Rasinske, Riley and Piper White, won the relay at 1:39.23, three full seconds ahead of Carrboro’s time of 1:42.30.

Sikes had earned individual titles since she was a freshman. She became the first female swimmer from Orange to win a state championship as a sophomore when she captured the 50 yard freestyle in 2022.

When she formally signed with the University of Georgia last November inside Orange High Gymnasium, she said the only thing she had never done was help her teammates (or as she more commonly refers to them, “her friends”) win the 200 yard medley relay state championship.

On Thursday night at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary, Sikes erased the only blot on her otherwise spotless record.

Sikes, White, Zoe Jones and White opened the night with a tight victory over Central Cabarrus to take the state championship. Last year, Central Cabarrus edged Orange by .15 seconds for the gold medal.

Piper White completed the freestyle in 24.48 seconds, edging Cabarrus’ Audrey Wolff by six-hundredths-of-a-second to take the crown.

“I think what’s really impressed us about Katie Belle over the four years we’ve known her is what a quality kid she is,” said Orange swimming coach Ron Geib. “Everybody sees her swimming prowess and it’s undeniable how fast she is. But that girl will cheer everyone from the newest member of our team to the most experiences member of our team. She’s just as happy as someone else winning as she is for herself winning.”

With four first place finishes, the Orange women’s team finished 2nd in the team standings, their best-ever showing. The Lady Panthers came away with 187 points. Lake Norman Charter won the state championship with 300 points.

Individually, Sikes was as strong as ever. For the third year in a row, she captured the 50 yard freestyle state title. The only minor quibble would be her time of 22.38 seconds was a tad shy of the 22.17 seconds she completed the race in last year, which set an event record and earned her automatic All-American status.

But her other individual race on Thursday night made up for it.

Sikes earned her second straight 100 freestyle state title at 48.76 seconds, setting a new state championship event record, regardless of classification. It was the 25th fastest time ever recorded by a high school swimmer in American history and earned Sikes automatic All-American status in two separate events.

For the second year in a row, Sikes was named the Most Outstanding Female Swimmer of the 3A State Championships. She’s the fifth woman to repeat as MOFS of the 3A championships dating back to 1992.

Sikes ends her Orange career with five individual state championships, three relay state titles (she was a member of the first Orange relay swim team, regardless of gender, to win a state championship in 2023) and seven individual regional championships.

Cedar Ridge junior Sophia Stinnett finished with her first individual state championship medal. After winning two championships at the Central Regionals on Saturday in Greensboro, Stinnett finished third in the 100 yard backstroke at 1:01.25 Abbey Cronin of Central Cabarrus took the gold. Stinnett also came in fourth in the 500 yard freestyle at 5:15.99. Madison Bowen of Croatan, in a thrilling finish, took first after Kathryn Ford of Fred T. Foard led almost the entire race.

Orange’s Riley White, another senior, also went out in style. She earned the bronze medal in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 59.06 seconds. Carrboro’s Maya Lambers won the state championship at 55.83. seconds. White also came in fourth in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:11.77. Cedar Ridge junior Quinn McCrimmon finished tenth. Kaylee Eggers of Rocky Mount earned the state title.

Orange sophomore Piper White finished sixth in the 50 yard freestyle. She came in seventh in the 100 yard freestyle.

Cedar Ridge junior Quinn McCrimmon finished 10th in the 200 yard individual medley. McCrimmon also came in 13th in the 100 yard butterfly.

Cedar Ridge’s 400 yard freestyle relay team of Stinnett, McCrimmon, Sierra Godfrey and Hala Zafar finished 14th.

CARY–It turns out the two best 3A 500 yard freestyle swimmers in the state have been practicing together for years.

And they’re on the same team.

Just like the fierce inner-team competition between Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen drove the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships in the 1990s, Luke Roman and Alex Andre were the dynamic that steered Orange men’s swimming to the Central Conference championship for the third straight year this winter.

Often, the best swimmer that Roman and Andre would face in a given week wouldn’t be from an opposing team in a dual meet.

It would be in practice against each other at the Orange County Sportsplex on many a weekday morning.

The ultimate proof came in the 3A State Championships at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary on Thursday night, when Roman and Andre were paired alongside each other in the 500 yard freestyle finals.

Roman would walk away with the 3A State Championship at 4:41.62.

Andre, situated one lane to the left of Roman, beat Carrboro’s Matt Strada to the wall for second place with a time of 4:44.45. Strada took the bronze at 4;47.37.

Roman, in lane four, led after completing the first lap in 24.94 seconds. Strada would briefly take the lead after lap three, but Roman came back and reassumed command by .15 of a second following the fourth turn. Andre would surpass Strada on lap five, but Roman delivered his best moments in the final stages. He lengthened his lead to 2.1 seconds going into the bell lap.

Roman becomes just the second male swimmer in Hillsborough history to win a state championship. The only other champion was Orange’s Ben Scott, who won the 2018 3A 100 yard freestyle title.

“It’s means so much to me,” Roman said. “I got so emotional when I saw the first place on that scoreboard. Swimming is kind of like a life cycle. I go to school, I swim and I feel like that’s all I do. In the end, I’ve wanted this for such a long time. I’ve been praying so long for this.”

It was a twist of fate from the 2023 3A State Championships. In the sane pool, Andre finished third in the 500 while Roman came in seventh. Facing Andre on a daily basis helped make him a state champion.

“It definitely gets a little competitive,” Roman said. “But we’ve been swimming all of our lives with each other. So it’s something that we’re used to. I love it in the end.”

Earlier in the day, Andre finished fifth in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:00.82. Strada won the gold with a time of 1:55.95.

“By constantly pushing each other in practice, we make each other better,” Andre said.

Roman wound up with two medals on the day. He captured the bronze in the 200 yard freestyle. Andrew Commins of Carrboro took the gold with a time of 1:3.96. Owen Lin of J.H. Rose earned the silver.

“I couldn’t be happier for Luke,” said Orange Swimming coach Ron Geib. “Luke has battled his own mindset sometime and he’s defeating himself when he can win. He’s now proved to himself that he can win at this level. It’s always been there. It’s just a matter of getting over that mental hurdle.”

The elusive state championship completes a dominant year for Roman. Two weeks ago, he lapped the field to win the 500 yard freestyle in the Central Conference Championship in Hillsborough. On Saturday, he took the gold medal in the Central Regionals in the 500, swimming’s marathon race. It’s so lengthy, teammates are stationed at the end of the pool to hold up placards signaling how many laps a swimmer has remaining.

“When you’re doing a 500 yard race, that’s tough,” Geib said. “To be down in the pool and not relent, it’s huge.”

Cedar Ridge’s Nikhil Agans, a senior, finished seventh in the 200 yard freestyle. In the 100 yard freestyle, Agans reached the finals and came in 8th.

In the opening event of the men’s finals, Andre, Roman, Nicholas Baczara and Ayden Twiddy finished 9th in the 200 yard medley relay. After finishing 9th in prelims on Thursday morning, the quartet won the consolation race at 1:46.21.

To close the night, Andre, Baczara, Twiddy and Roman came in 5th in the 400 yard freestyle relay. Carrboro, which claimed the team state championship, won the 400 relay state title.

ROXBORO–In a best-case scenario, the Orange men’s basketball team could have wrapped up the Central Conference regular season championship in Roxboro on Tuesday night.

But the terms “best-case scenario” and “Roxboro” never belong in a sentence together for Orange.

Certainly not on Tuesday night.

As Person defeated Orange 74-68 in Rockets Gymnasium, the race for the conference championship suddenly got more interesting on several fronts.

Orange (11-11, 9-1 in the Central Conference) now leads Eastern Alamance by one game in the loss column for first place with nine days remaining in the regular season. The Eagles defeated Cedar Ridge 72-50 in Mebane on Tuesday to improve to 7-2 in the Central Conference.

Following its Senior Night contest against Southern Alamance this Friday, Orange will travel to face Eastern Alamance on the final night of the regular season February 16.

It was Orange’s fourth straight loss inside Rockets Gymnasium. The Panthers haven’t won in Roxboro since December 15, 2015.

Orange center Ryan Honeycutt, the only senior to regularly start for the Panthers, will miss the rest of the season after suffering a broken thumb following a hard foul against Cedar Ridge in the third quarter on Friday night. Honeycutt’s thumb was in a cast as he watched the game from the bench and won’t be removed for another six weeks, which will cut into baseball season, his top sport.

Losing Honeycutt removed a top finisher and a valuable, experienced rebounder for an Orange team that was fully healthy for the past 12 games, a stretch where the Panthers had gone 9-3 and had won eight straight. Without him, Orange’s offense looked off kilter against the Rockets early.

Then Orange’s leading scorer, Coleman Cloer, was hit with three fouls in the opening quarter, two of which came off the ball. It forced Cloer, who wasn’t called for a foul in either of Orange’s two games last week, to the bench for the entire second quarter.

Not that Cloer was alone in getting in foul trouble. Person’s top two scorers, Lance Clarke and DaeJon Hodge, each picked up two fouls in the first half. Clarke didn’t play in the second quarter, either.

But Person still had finishers. Orange’s last lead in the game came at 4-2 following a drive by sophomore Kai Wade. Without Honeycutt there to close out on him, Hodge drained a series of short, baseline jumpers to put Person ahead 6-4. When Cloer picked up his third foul on an offensive foul on the weak side trying to gain position against Clarke, the Panthers went into a tailspin.

Person went on a 14-2 run that included two more jumpers from Hodge and a three-pointer from Quante Bowman that gave Person its largest lead at 20-8. The only period Orange’s offense was in a rhythm came in the final 4:30 of the second quarter when its three-quarters court press began creating turnovers. Junior Xandrell Pennix led the charge with eleven points in the second quarter, including two three-pointers. Orange finished the half on a 9-2 run behind two 3-pointers from Pennix and got within a point following a lay-in from Freddy Sneed.

In Orange’s 63-58 win over Person in Hillsborough last month, they hit ten 3-pointers. On Tuesday night, they were limited to four.

Cloer, limited to three points in the first half, came out like a hungry animal in the second half. He tied the game at 39-39 following a three-pointer from the corner where Orange got a rare fortunate bounce off a Person rim. The Rockets quickly summoned the lead for good when Clarke scored on a baseline jumper from 15-feet. Person’s Romello Snow, who didn’t score in the first meeting with Orange, dropped a quickly finger roll, the last of his eight points. After Sneed responded for Orange, Clarke drained a 3-pointer to put Person ahead 46-41.

The Rockets got balanced scoring in the fourth quarter to pull away. Reserve center Lamont Johnson opened with back-to-back field goals, the first of five different Person players to score in the final eight minutes. After Cloer was called for his fourth foul for using his off arm to shield a Person defender, Hodge hit a wing jumper to give the Rockets a 58-50 lad with 4:00 remaining. Clarke rebounded a miss by Johnson for a lay-in to increase Person’s lead to 60-50.

Cloer scored 19 of Orange’s 21 points in the fourth quarter, but the only other Panther to get on the scoring ledger late was Mason Robinson off a dunk set up by Cloer.

Orange made a late charge behind Cloer and actually got the lead down to 70-68 after he hit three free throws, but Clarke and Bowman each hit two free throws to put the game away.

As Orange left the floor following its first conference loss, the Rockets students showered them with “overrated” chants.

It is the final week of swimming season and several Orange Panthers are going for state championships. In the case of Orange senior Katie Belle Sikes, she will complete her legacy as the most accomplished swimmer in the history of Hillsborough. On Saturday, Sikes claimed two more individual regional championships at the Central Regional Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Sikes won the 50 yard freestyle regional championship for the fourth year in a row, ending with a time of 23.11 seconds. For the third consecutive year, Sikes captured the 100 yard freestyle title at 51.17 seconds. In both races, Orange sophomore Piper White finished runner-up behind Sikes. It helped the Orange women finish second in the Central Regional championships, its best-ever showing. On the men’s side, Orange had the top two finishers in the 500 yard freestyle. Junior Luke Roman won his first regional championship  at 4:45.59. His teammate, Alex Andre, finished 2nd at 4:50.54. Later that night, Andre won his first regional championship in the 200 yard individual medley. He touched the wall at 2:01.50 in the tightest race of the night. Carrboro’s Matt Strada finished second at 2:01.72. Sikes, Roman and Andre will join their teammates in the 3A State Swimming Championships on Thursday at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary. It will be Sikes final meet as an Orange Panther. She has three individual state championships in her career, as well as a relay championship with Riley White, Ainsley Rasinske and Piper White. In 2023, Sikes was named the Most Outstanding Swimmer of the 3A State Championships. 

Orange swimming’s Katie Belle Sikes, Luke Roman & Alex Andre talk winning regional championships

No Description