The East Wilkes, Elkin and Starmount girls wrestling teams competed in the second-annual regional championships this past Friday and Saturday and saw various forms of success.
Despite both the Lady Elks and Lady Rams being small in numbers (each club sent one wrestler), they made the most of their opportunities in the Midwest Regional, which took place at A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis.
Kimberly Salinas-Rosales represented Starmount, but quickly found herself in the consolation round at 235 pounds after a loss to Oak Grove’s Lauren Davis in the opening round.
But the freshman bounced back to claim a pin victory in the second consolation against Ayriana Lindsay of Anson County. Salinas-Rosales fell one round later to West Rowan’s Margaret Leach.
While Salinas-Rosales saw her season end, Elkin’s Denise Hernandez punched her ticket for next weekend’s state championship with a fourth-place finish.
For the first time, the girls will be a part of the NCHSAA wrestling championships on Feb. 15-17 inside the Greensboro Coliseum, alongside the boys.
Two weeks after claiming a Northwest 1A/2A Conference championship, Hernandez looked to be in good shape to reach the championship finals at 114 pounds.
But a defeat by technical fall to East Rowan’s Leah Edwards in the semifinals, dropped her into the consolation round. The junior rebounded with a third-period pin of West Davidson’s Jada Parrish in the consolation semifinals to become a state qualifier.
Hernandez was denied a medal finish when she was bested by R. J. Reynolds’ Alejandra Cordero-Perez in the third-match.
East Wilkes turned in the best showing among the three schools as it claimed eighth place as a team during West Regional championships, which took place at North Henderson High School.
The Lady Cardinals finished with 53 points (and a point behind Charlotte Olympic for seventh place). The host Lady Knights won the regional championships with 151 points.
In just its first season fielding a program, East Wilkes’ Jayden Hutchison and Abbi Stout will join Hernandez at the state championships.
After a first-round bye, Hutchison advanced to the championship finals at 152 pounds with win over Brevard’s Allie Laney in the quarterfinals and Smoky Mountain’s Mackenzie Ball in the semifinals.
Hutchison would claim a regional runner-up finish as she was defeated by Lake Norman’s Caleigh Suddreth by pin. That runner-up finish claimed 20 points for the Lady Cardinals.
Stout, who competed at 235 pounds, wrestled six matches — the most of any area wrestler — during the two-day event and claimed a fourth-place finish to qualify.
Stout won her first round match with a third-period pin but then lost in the quarterfinals to Madison’s Kimberly Talton.
The freshman battled back with three-straight wins, which included a blood round victory against Smoky Mountain’s Riley Stokes.
Stout saw her bid to medal end as she lost by pin the first period to North Iredell’s Allison Sanders.
Shayana Coria (100 pounds), Piper Church (107 pounds), Karlie Tharpe (114 pounds) and McKinley Hart (120 pounds) also earned points for East Wilkes. Tharpe won two matches at the tournament while the others won one apiece.
Hannah Quesenberry (126 pounds), Maicey Lankford (132 pounds) and Daphne Reece (165 pounds) also competed, but did not score any points.
Notes: East Wilkes was one of two 1A schools to finish in the top 10 in the regional; Swain County (114 points) was the other, finishing second. Mount Airy claimed the highest finish among the NW 1A schools as it finished fourth in the Midwest Regional with 71.5 points. In addition to Hernandez, Hutchison and Stout, the Lady Granite Bears Jenevy Olande and Jamie Hearl will also be joining them in Greensboro. Olande and Hearl won their regional championships at 100 pounds and 107 pounds, respectively. Hearl was also named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament.
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