BURLINGTON–There were expected winners for Cedar Ridge in the 2nd Central Conference Wrestling Tournament.
And then there was freshman Alejandro Briones.
In November, Eastern Alamance’s Mason Farmer defeated Briones by technical fall 22-7 during the Red Wolf Invitational at Cedar Ridge in the 150-pound tournament.
On Saturday at Williams High School, Briones and Farmer met again, this time in the 144-pound championship match. Briones immediately let it be known that there would be no technical fall on this day, scoring two takedowns in the opening period to take a 4-1 lead.
Briones would increase his advantage to 9-1 after he opened the second period with a takedown and scored three back points. Farmer fought back and took Briones’ back, eventually earning two back points to cut his deficit down to 9-5.
The third period may have been the most thrilling finish of the day. Tanner got a double leg takedown. In the final ten seconds, Tanner got a near fall as Briones struggled to keep his shoulders off the mat. Tanner evened the match at 9-9, but Briones escaped off the mat in the final second and earned a 10-9 upset in a thrilling finish.
Briones earned his first tournament win of the season as he improved to 22-11. Earlier in the day, Briones defeated Gabe Cameron of Person 6-3.
After clinching the Central Conference regular season championship two weeks ago, the Red Wolves appeared set to repeat as tournament champions. But Person scored three pins in the heavier weight classes to close out the day with 187 points. Cedar Ridge, with four first-place finishes, came in second at 179.5 points. Southern Alamance finished third at 148 points.
Two Red Wolves defended their individual conference titles from 2023, while a senior came through with his first conference title.
Senior Kaden Tatro continued his march towards the all-time school wins record by easily taking the 165-pound championship. Tatro, who now has 154 career wins, defeated James Rose of Person by tech fall 18-1 in four minutes. In the semifinals, Tatro pinned Chris Solomon of Eastern Alamance in 1:58.
Tatro is 45-4 this season with 21 pins and 16 technical falls. He how has 154 career wins. The all-time record is held by Chandler Collins at 166 wins.
Tatro won the 182-pound conference championship last year, beating Northwood’s Ethan Kuball 8-3 in the championship match.
At 120 pounds, junior Pierce Prescod pinned Orange’s Adrian Sierra in 1:30 in the championship match. Prescod pinned Pedro Manuel Ramos of Walter Williams in 3:04 in the semifinals. This season, Prescod has a 41-9 record with 31 pins, which leads the team. Last week, during senior night at Cedar Ridge, Prescod won his 100th career match as a junior. He now has 104 career wins. He is now three wins behind Ethan Knapp for sixth place on the all-time school career wins list.
At 150 pounds, senior Angus Pritchard captured the championship. A year after not placing in the 170-pound conference tournament, Pritchard scored a major decision over Southern Alamance’s Andrew Dudley 15-7 to take his first conference title.
Pritchard, 21-9 this season with ten pins, pinned Orange’s Evan Parker in the semifinals.
In addition to Cedar Ridge’s four conference champions, they had four others place in the top three in their weight divisions.
Junior Ryan Rakouskas reached the championship match at 157-pound tournament. Rakouskas, who reached the state championships last year, pinned Addison Carey of Person in the semifinals. Jace Rich of Southern Alamance pinned Rakouskas in the title match. Rakouskas is 29-11 with 23 pins this year.
At heavyweight, Aaron Olivares extended his streak with his eighth straight pinfall win in the semifinals by beating Luke White of Southern Alamance. Person’s Trevquan Gary defeated Olivares for the championship. At one point this year, Olivares was 8-9. Now, he goes into this weekend’s State Dual Team Tournament playoff match with a mark of 24-17 with 19 pins.
At 132 pounds, Graylon Collins pinned Hamden Wagner of Southern Alamance in 2:43 of the third place match. Collins is 23-14 with eleven pins in his first year at the varsity level.
Favio Jaramillo Esparza finished third at 106 pounds. He wrestled Person’s Ayden Dymes of Person twice, including in the third-place match. Esparza scratched out a 5-3 decision to improve his record to 31-10 with ten pins.
At 138 pounds, Jordin Blue pinned Dylan Maloney of Southern Alamance to win third place. Blue scored two pins in the tournament and has 13 wins this year.
Cedar Ridge is now waiting for the bracketing for the 32-team 3A State Dual Team Tournament. It will be their seventh appearance in the state tournament. The first and second rounds will be held on Saturday at a location to be determined.