One week after Cardinal Gibbons handed Orange just its second dual match regular season loss since 2016, the Crusaders returned to Hillsborough to end Orange’s dominance in the Jim King Invitational.
The Crusaders had three individual champions to win the overall team competition in the 39th Jim King/Orange Invitational. Gibbons won the two-day event with 200.5 points. Orange, which had won the JKO four consecutive years, finished second with 162 points. Person, a runner-up in 2018, finished 3rd at 166 points.
19 teams participated in the two-day event, including seven squads from Wake County and five from Durham.
Cedar Ridge finished 11th with 86 points. It was the Red Wolves best performance in the JKO since 2011, when they came in 8th with 92 points with two individual champions (Eli Schultz at 170 pounds and Mike Mastrianni at 182).
Gibbons, participating in the JKO for the fourth straight year and who finished 15th in 2016, is only the sixth school in the 39-year history of the event to win the tournament. Cary has won 22 JKOs. Orange has nine. Riverside has five. Jordan has two titles and Northwest Guilford won in 2014.
The Imps, who have participated in all but one of the JKOs (they missed 1981), finished 5th with 132.5 points.
Orange, with its youngest team in years, made some history they would have rather forget. It was the first time in tournament history that the Panthers didn’t have a wrestler reach the championship final in any of the 14 weight classes.
Nine Orange grapplers made their JKO debut. Of the 14 Panther participants, only Joshua Dunn, Kessel Summers, Matthew Smith-Breeden, Henry Joubert-Stanzel and Tayton Alvis had JKO experience.
“I think the guys showed a lot of heart,” said Orange wrestling coach Spenser Poteat. “We had some positive spots. We just have to keep working. I’m sure our coaches will have the guys ready for the next competition.”
Summers earned 3rd place at 126 pounds. After losing to Richie Rizzuto of Leesville Road in the semifinals, Summers rebounded to pin Isaac Rameriz of Riverside in 2:07, then defeated Eli Kays of Sanderson 7-3 in the consolation final.
In his first JKO appearance, Orange’s Xavier Tinnen had a 3rd place finish at 195 pounds. Tinnen pinned Chatham Central’s Gerli Amador in 1:43 in the consolation final. Tinnen went to the consolation bracket after being pinned by Holden Cypher of Millbrook, who eventually won the tournament.
Tinnen won four straight matches to capture third place. After a forfeit win over Sanderson’s Deavon Lucas, he pinned Tyler Kendall of Northern Durham in 39 seconds. He also pinned Person’s Zak Lieske in 1:28 in the consolation semifinals.
For Cedar Ridge, Daina Pritchard finished 3rd at 132 pounds. He scored a 9-1 decision over Smith-Breeden in the consolation final.
Pritchard scored pins in both of his Friday matches. He defeated Ryan Rago of Cary in 1:31. In the quarterfinals, Pritchard pinned Owen Matheney of Apex in :55. Isaiah Olive of Middle Creek defeated Pritchard 10-1 en route to the 152 pound championship.
In the consolation semifinals on Saturday morning, Pritchard had a thrilling match against Gibbons’ Samuel Freeman that extended to overtime. Pritchard scored the match’s final takedown to win 11-9.
In a year of underclassmen learning on the job across Hillsborough wrestling, Cedar Ridge freshman Fernando Martinez finished 4th at 106 pounds in his JKO debut. Martinez, who finished 2nd in the Red Wolves Invitational last month, now has a 10-3 record for the season after going 4-2 this weekend. Martinez pinned Leesville Road’s Aydan Gavisdalla in 2:43 to reach the 3rd place match, where he lost to Eastern Alamance’s Christopher Watson.
Cedar Ridge’s James Rosati-Brown came in 5th at 152 pounds. Despite, injuring his right leg early, Rosati-Brown pinned Luke McDonald of Middle Creek in 3:40 to end his day.
Orange’s Korbin Nevius (160), Nathan Hecht (182), and Joshua Guzman (285) all finished fourth. Guzman wrestled in place of senior heavyweight Juan Navarro, who missed the tournament because he had his wisdom teeth pulled.
Orange’s Tyler Larkin finished 5th at 220.
Cary’s Kobe Early, the 126-pound champion, was named Tournament Most Valuable Wrestler.