Scott Metcalf has prepared his Cedar Ridge wrestling team for the state tournament since the season started in November.
What he didn’t prepare for was a three-week layoff before the opening round match created by the winter weather.
“It was a bit of a concern,” Metcalf said.
Not that it mattered. For the second time in school history, Cedar Ridge has advanced to the state quarterfinals.
On top of that, the Red Wolves will host the final three rounds of the tournament, including the state championship, on Tuesday night.
Favio Jaramillo, Juan Jaramillo, Mikey O’Melia and Alejandro Briones each earned bonus point wins in both matches as the Red Wolves defeated Atkins 47-29 in the opening round, then held off Currituck County 44-34 in the second round on Tuesday night at Cedar Ridge High School.
Cedar Ridge, seeded #3, will host former Central Conference rival Person at Red Wolves Gymnasium in the Eastern Regional semifinals. As the Rockets and the Red Wolves renew acquaintances, top-seeded Croatan will face Montgomery Central in the other semifinal on the opposite mat.
The Eastern Regional Championship match will immediately be contested afterwards.
The Western Regional Championships will also be held at Cedar Ridge. Top-seeded West Rowan will face 4th-seeded East Rowan. In the other bracket, 2nd-seeded Enka opposes 3rd-seeded North Henderson.
Currituck County defeated Orange 38-36 in the opening round on Tuesday. The Panthers competed without sophomore Jordan Barbee, who leads the team with 34 wins. Barbee was injured while warming up moments before the Panthers regular season finale against Seaforth on January 21. He will miss this weekend’s regional championships at Seaforth.
Cedar Ridge and Currituck traded the led four times in the opening five matches before the Red Wolves got the upper-hand courtesy of big performances from its veterans.
Cedar Ridge senior Favio Jaramillo opened with a 19-4 tech fall over Hunter Vogan at 113 pound in a match where Jaramillo got six points in the opening minute, including three near fall points. Jaramillo earned his 39th win, tied for the team lead.
The Knights took its first lead when Lucas Angell pinned Colton Poole in 1:07 at 120 pounds.
Freshman David Angel put the Red Wolves back in front when he bull rushed Adam Newman in the second period for a powerful double leg takedown and scored a pin in 3:02.
Currituck’s Jonathan Buckley scored an 18-1 technical fall over Caleb Copeland to even the match at 11-11. Miller Menteer earned his own tech fall win over Landon Kemp at 138 pounds to give the Knights a 16-15 advantage.
Briones, who leads Cedar Ridge with 22 pins, put away Aidyn Foreman in 1:38. It was the first of three straight Red Wolf pins that paved the way to victory.
Senior Mikey O’Melia earned his 34th win of the year by pinning Waylon Waterfield in 2:38.
Another Red Wolf senior, Isaiah Craig, appeared headed to a technical fall victory against Timothy Duchense. Leading 14-0 after a restart, Craig appeared set to allow Duchense an escape point. Instead, once the whistle sounded Craig sank in a three-quarters nelson and secured the pin at 3:26 to give the Red Wolves a 29-16 win.
After Currituck’s Easten Binckley scored a 17-second pin, Cedar Ridge’s Jose Rios grabbed a belly-to-belly takedown and pinned Da’Merion Lewis in 2:45.
Pressed into a must-win situation with four matches remaining, Currituck’s Dominic Yarger pinned Damian Carbajal in 2:45 at 190 pounds.
Senior Carlos Baldwin ensured the Red Wolf victory with a pin over Koby Hayden in 1:05.
The only match to go the distance came at 106 pounds, the final match of the night, where sophomore Juan Jaramillo scored an escape point with 26 seconds remaining to go ahead of Weston Lee 10-9. With time running out, Jaramillo was able to keep Lee in his clutches and prevent another escape to win.
Currituck heavyweight Kyriakos Safaris erased a 9-1 deficit to pin Landon Walker in the heavyweight match.
In the opening match against Atkins, Cedar Ridge gained five pinfall wins to advance to the second round. After Juan Jaramillo earned a forfeit victory at 106 to start the dual match, Favio Jaramillo pinned Jackson Green in 1:35. Atkins only win in the opening eight matches came from Liam Slate, who held off Colton Poole 9-8 at 120 pounds.
Angel defeated Jaxon Gardner via tech fall 15-0. Copeland, Kemp, Briones and O’Melia all scored pins to put the Red Wolves ahead 41-3. At heavyweight, Walker pinned Henry Underwood in 55 seconds.
