PITTSBORO–For over a year, Favio Jaramillo has hang an empty bracket on a piece of cardboard up in his room.
It’s been there since last winter, serving as a reminder of how far Favio has to go to reach the level he wants to attain. He put it up after he finished 4th in the Mideast Regional championships at Cedar Ridge High School.
Now, that piece of cardboard will be replaced with a new bracket that shows Jaramillo as a regional champion.
On Saturday, Jaramillo defeated Lennon Ogden of Southern Nash 7-1 to win the 113-pound championship of the 5A East Region at Seaforth High School. Jaramillo, the top-seed, earned his second trip to the state championships. He is now 43-4 for his senior season.
In the championship match, Favio led 1-0 at the end of the first period. After Ogden evened things up with an escape point, Favio scored a takedown in the third period to take the lead for good. Favio gained Ogden’s back with 49 seconds remaining and rode out a 7-1 victory for the title.
“Last year wasn’t what I wanted,” Favio said. “But I went out there in the state championships and a grinded in the offseason to get here.”
Jaramillo was one of five Cedar Ridge men’s wrestlers to qualify for the 5A State Championships, which will start on Friday at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro.
Juan Jaramillo will join his brother in the Gate City. Juan, a sophomore, reached the finals of the 106-pound tournament to earn his first trip to the state championship. In the semifinals, Juan trailed 2nd-seeded Alfred Pobadora of Rocky Mount. Following a restart, Pobadora and Jaramillo accidentally clashed heads. Pobadora suffered a head injury and was unable to continue.
In the 106 pound finals, 4th-seeded Jonathan Helbert of West Carteret defeated Juan Jaramillo 10-0.
At wrestling regionals, the consolation bracket semifinals are often more intense than the championship matches. With the top four finishers from each weight class advancing to the state championships, fifth-place finishers usually see a whole season’s worth of work go down the drain short of their goal of reaching Greensboro.
It appeared that Cedar Ridge senior Mikey O’Melia would fall short of reaching the state championships for the first time. In the consolation semifinals, he trailed J.F. Webb’s D’Shon Grady 9-0. Late in the second period, O’Melia got a takedown, which triggered a comeback. Grady was penalised several times in the third period. O’Melia took down Grady and got the pin at 4:36, leading to an emotional celebration with his family and teammates. Grady was emotional, as well, for different reasons as he immediately went the back.
Freshman David Angel also qualified for the state championships at 120 pounds, but the fickle nature of the regionals nearly caught up to him, as well. In the consolation quarterfinals, Angel trailed Tayquan Alston of Rocky Mount 5-3 with 35 seconds remaining. After Alston was penalized a point, Angel scored a takedown with two seconds remaining to secure the win.
Angel wound up taking third place. In the consolation semifinals, he put away Carson Gionnotti of Southeast Alamance 14-8. In the 3rd place match, Angel scored six points in the opening 40 seconds of the second period and cruised to a 15-7 win over Jovanni Lamparelli of Richlands.
Alejandro Briones will also be going to Greensboro. Competing at 144 pounds, Briones finished 4th. In the opening round, Briones pinned Jacob Alvarez of Rockingham County in 2:45. Briones reached the semifinals after pinning Bryson Murray of Southern Nash in 55 seconds. Seaforth’s Gabe Rogers, the eventual champion, defeated Briones to reach the final.
Briones rebounded quickly to earn a major decision win over Haien Brader of Currituck County 14-0, which was inches away from being a tech fall. In an exciting third place match, Josh Kellis of Montgomery Central scored a takedown with 10 seconds left to beat Briones 12-11.
Orange’s Renn Van Hoose also qualified for the state championships at 132 pounds. Van Hoose edged Eli Suydam of Southern Nash 4-2. He will be the only Orange men’s wrestler in the state championships.
It was the final event for Orange senior Logan Scarantino, who surpassed 100 wins earlier this year. Scarantino pinned Croatan’s Casey Hoeft in 22 seconds for his last victory as a Panther.
