Jeff Hamlin

With the academic year now over across Orange County, a return to normal doesn’t seem too far away.

But the peculiarities created by the pandemic will continue to affect the final two weeks of wrestling season. This morning, the 3A Mideast Regionals will take place at Eastern Guilford High School in Gibsonville.

The fact that regionals are taking place on a weekday is strange enough. So is the fact that’s it’s going on at the beginning of summer. It’s the first individual tournament this year for virtually everyone competing. In a standard year, most competitors would have had 4-5 tournament under their belts by now. This year, the closest thing for local grapplers has been tri-meets, consisting of two dual team matches in one night.

Plus, there will be no consolation rounds in the regional championships and the state championships. In 2021, they will be single-elimination tournaments.

In a standard year, those who qualify for the state championships get the reward of competing in the famed Greensboro Coliseum. It’s where Orange’s Payton Wilson won the 220-pound championship in 2017 in a wild finish where he avoided a takedown at the horn to win 4-3 and conclude a 44-0 season. It was the last match Bobby Shriner coached in his legendary Orange career. It’s where Orange’s Josiah Ramirez won the elusive 182-pound championship.

This year, competitors will grow used to Eastern Guilford High over the next 12 days. Not only is that where the regionals are taking place, it’s also the scene of the state championships.

This morning, 13 wrestlers from the Big 8 Conference Champion Orange wrestling team and eight grapplers from Cedar Ridge will start pursuit of qualifying for the state tournament in the regional championships in Gibsonville. The top four finishers will qualify for the state championships, which will be held on Saturday, June 26.

Orange junior Kessel Summers, who won his 100th career match earlier this year, will go for his third trip to the 3A State Tournament. Last year, Summers finished 3rd at 126 pounds with a 14-5 win over Andrew Clark of Union Pines in the consolation final. Summers will compete at 132 pounds and start against Autumn Coles of East Chapel Hill in the 16-man tournament. Summers is 16-2 this year with his only losses coming against 4A opponents last week.

Another Panther going for a repeat trip to the state championships is junior Brendon Worsham. Last year, Worsham finished runner-up in the 182 pound division. He punched his ticket to the Greensboro Coliseum after scoring an 11-3 major decision over Joshua Shorter of Walter Williams to reach the finals. Worsham is the #2 seed and has already received a bye. He will face either Gage Ratley of Grey’s Creek or freshman Chevelle Cade of Fayetteville Westover in the quarterfinals.

Cedar Ridge will have two senior wrestlers trying to reach the state championships for the first time in their careers. At 152 pounds, James Rosati-Brown sports at 21-2 record for the season. His career mark is 76-47. Rosati-Brown opens with Matthew Schneider of Western Harnett.

At 145 pounds, Cedar Ridge senior Daina Pritchard comes in with a 22-1 mark. He has won six consecutive matches. In the opening round, Pritchard will face Khayree Dixon of Northern Durham, which will be the first meeting between the two this year. Pritchard won via forfeit against Northern Durham in a dual match last month.

Cedar Ridge sophomore Fernando Martinez earned a 7-seed in the 120-pound tournament despite an overall record of 20-2. Martinez opens against Cole Burgess of Gray’s Creek. Last year, Burgess competed in the 126-pound tournament. The winner will face Southern Durham’s ShyHeen Davis, who Martinez already defeated via injury default earlier this year. Even with a reduced schedule in 2021 during his second varsity season, Martinez has a 54-15 career record.

Orange senior Henry Joubert-Stanzel has already gained a spot in the second round of the 170-pound tournament. Joubert-Stanzel, who is 15-1 with a team-high seven pins, has gained a bye into the second round. He will face Trinity’s Julian Goodman-Hernandez with a trip to the 3A State Tournament on the line.

Among the most interesting stories to follow will be Orange senior Hayden Horne, who will compete in his first regional championship. Horne is 13-0 with five pins this season. He has already received a bye to the quarterfinals and will open against either Cedar Ridge’s Aiden Kearns or Northern Durham’s Tyler Kendall.

Dillon Heffernan (113), Joshua Dunn (120), Jared Hutchins (126), Avery Clark (138), Matthew Smith-Breeden (145), Samuel Crawford (152), Nate Hecht (160), Elliott Woods (195) and Tyler Larkin (heavyweight) also qualified for regionals for Orange.

Cedar Ridge’s Kady Watkins (126), Mac McGhee (138), and Kaden Tatro (160) also reached regionals. It will be a full week for Watkins. In addition to regionals, she will compete in the 3A State Women’s Invitational Championships at Glenn High School in Kernersville on Saturday morning. Watkins was the first female wrestler in Hillsborough history to compete in a state tournament in 2019.

We journey to women’s golf for this week’s Retro Orange Panther of the Week. Samantha Durham and her sister Sarah both qualified for the 3A Central Regionals at Greensboro National Golf Club last month. In a standard year, Sarah would have competed in the regionals, but after a lengthy rain delay on May 4, the field was reduced from 62 players to 48 and Sarah didn’t make the cut. Over the past year, Samatha and Sarah have grown more serious about golf, but it’s something that runs in the family. Their brother played at Cedar Ridge and attended Campbell University. This season, Samatha Durham had the lowest score on the Panther team. They frequently play at Occoneechee Golf Course in Hillsborough, the home of the Orange and Cedar Ridge men’s and women’s golf teams which has hosted the Big 8 Conference Championships. The Durham sisters look forward to a more traditional schedule when women’s golf season resumes in August.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is freshman women’s tennis player Cameron Mayhew. Last week, Mayhew reached the 3A Mideast Regionals during the Big 8 Women’s Tennis Tournament inside the Lindsay Linker Tennis Courts at East Chapel Hill High School. Mayhew defeated an opponent from Orange 6-0, 6-0 to move into the third round. This season, Mayhew was the top singles player for Cedar Ridge and had some exciting victories. She defeated Orange’s Morgan Gwinn 6-0, 6-7 (4-7) and 10-5. She also defeated a player from Northern Durham 6-1, 6-0. Mayhew teamed with junior Chloe Patz to comprise Cedar Ridge’s #1 doubles team. Last month, Cameron’s brother, Josh, became the first Cedar Ridge player to ever reach a state singles championship match when he faced Chapel Hill’s Dennis Perumov for the 3A State Title. In addition to tennis, Cameron is a self-taught pianist who comprises many of her own instrumental songs. She will start play in the 3A Mideast Regionals on Friday morning at the Burlington Tennis Center.

Three very different paths to playing college baseball all culminated at the same place.

Just three days before Grady Ray, Bryce Clark and Matt Hughes graduated together inside Cedar Ridge Red Wolves Stadium, they gathered at the new J-Wing to sign their respective letters of intent. Ray will play at Division III Methodist University in Fayetteville. Clark will be at Lenoir Community College in Kinston. Hughes signed with Brunswick Community College in Bolivia, NC.

Both Clark and Hughes will be in Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

The ceremony was held on Wednesday afternoon. Presiding over the event was Red Wolves Athletic Director Andy Simmons along with Principal Dr. Carlos Ramirez.

By the end of the day, Ray, Clark and Hughes played their final game together at Cedar Ridge High against Kernersville Glenn. When Ray took off his uniform for the final time on Wednesday night, it ended four years of service to Cedar Ridge athletics that spanned three sports. He played football as a freshman, but basketball and baseball were his loves. He’s played basketball since he was four years old, and was a member of the varsity Red Wolves for four years. Ray joined the varsity for baseball when Mitchell Frazier was the head coach of Cedar Ridge in 2019, and helped current coach Bryson Massey establish his presence in the program despite an interminable interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Ray, the son of Jennifer and Warren Ray, played for the Sweponsville Sweepers of the Old North State League, a summer collegiate league. He’s also a member of Cedar Ridge’s International Baccalaureate Program and plans to major in, naturally, Exercise Science.

“I really like the school,” Ray said. “I’m really excited to play under Coach (Tom) Austin. Coach Massey was a huge part of this decision. I would talk to him after going to some camps. I looked at some different schools. He really helped me.”

Ray will now be conference rivals with the most successful pitcher in Cedar Ridge history. Phillip Berger, who won a school-record 21 games with the Red Wolves, just ended his sophomore season with William Peace University in Raleigh. Peace and Methodist are both in the USA South Athletic Conference.

Hughes, the son of Greg and Amy Hughes, started on the mound for Cedar Ridge in his final high school game. Like many members of the Class of 2021, Hughes had to deal with losing a substantial amount of time due to COVID-19. His junior season was limited to only two pitching performances. He opened 2021 with arm problems, which hurt Cedar Ridge’s pitching depth. However, he recovered to throw four scoreless innings against East Chapel Hill on June 4 in the most impressive stint of his Red Wolf career. Hughes struck out eight and scattered only one hit. Of 59 pitches he threw, 40 were strikes.

The Brunswick Dolphins, coached by Robbie Allen, was ranked #7 in the final NJCAA Division II Baseball Rankings on May 17. They finished the regular season 35-13.

“They have a winning tradition,” Hughes said. “I look forward to being a great pitcher for them.”

Hughes, who had other offers from various Division II and Division III schools, started playing baseball with the Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association when he was 5. He went on to Stanford Middle School before joining the Red Wolves. He plans to major in Arts.

“I’m going to remember all the great memories and the great teammates I had,” Hughes said.

In his freshman year, Hughes was on a team that went 18-6 and finished second in the Big 8 Conference with a 11-3 record. Cedar Ridge defeated Southern Alamance in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs in Hillsborough.

Clark, the son of Brian and Stephanie Clark, is a study in perseverance. At the age of 14, his baseball career was at a crossroads when he underwent Tommy John Surgery. It cost him his entire freshman year and a large portion of his sophomore season.

“The doctors asked me if I wanted to quit baseball,” Clark said. “I decided to get the surgery and continue with it.”

Clark, a shortstop, says he didn’t get full strength back in his right arm until this season. He spent three years at Orange, including the 2020 season as the starting second baseman for all of four games before the pandemic. In those four games, he hit .429.

He transferred to Cedar Ridge last summer. Against Orange last month, he became the first player to hit a home run off Ryan Hench, the Panthers’ ace starting pitcher. It was the first run that Hench conceded in four starts.

With the Lenoir Lancers, Clark will play at historic Grainger Stadium, the longtime home of Kinston’s franchise in the Carolina League. He plans to major in Health Science.

Joey Berini: Berini saw action for #12 East Carolina during its Super Regional series against #4 Vanderbilt at Hawkins Field in Nashville, TN. The Commodores swept the best-of-three series to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, NE. On Saturday, Berini entered the game as a pinch-hitter replacing Bryson Morrell. He flew out to right field. Berini played the 9th inning at shortstop. Berini also played in Friday’s game, a 2-0 Vanderbilt win, pinch-hitting for Ryder Giles. He grounded out to second base. The Pirates struggled against Vanderbilt pitching all weekend. ECU managed just three hits on Friday and two on Saturday. East Carolina ends the year 44-17. In his freshman year, Berini played 15 games for the Pirates. He hit .250, including an RBI single against Charlotte in the Greenville Regional on June 5. On May 13 against Cincinnati, Berini had a putout and three assists at shortstop. Berini will play summer baseball with the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League, who played its home games at McCrary Park. 

Bryse Wilson: Wilson won his third game of the season for the Gwinnett Stripers of Triple-A East on Wednesday. The Stripers defeated the Memphis Redbirds 5-4 in a seven-inning game at AutoZone Park in Memphis. In five innings, Wilson gave up four runs off seven hits. He had one strikeout with one walk. In 79 pitches, Wilson threw 51 strikes. Wilson is 3-1 this season for the Stripers. Gwinnett entered Sunday’s game against Memphis with an 18-17 record. 

Phillip Berger: The Elizabethton River Riders of the Appalachian League started its second full week of the season. On Wednesday, the Kingsport Axmen defeated the River Riders 4-3. Berger faced five batters. He threw one-and-one-thirds shutout innings with two strikeouts and one walk. On Saturday, Elizabethton defeated the Bluefield Ridge Runners 6-2 at Northeast Community Credit Union Ballpark to end a four-game losing streak. Elizabethton is 3-5. The River Riders will travel to Burlington to face the Sock Puppets on June 22 and June 23 at Burlington Athletic Stadium. 

Jaden Hurdle: Hurdle was named to the Region X All-Academic team for the Patrick Henry Community College softball team. In her freshman season with the Patriots, Hurdle played 40 games. She hit .328 with ten home runs and 32 RBIs. She also made 17 pitching appearances with two starts. In the circle, Hurdle went 4-3 with a 4.61 ERA with 40 strikeouts and 17 walks. The Patriots finished 2nd in the Region X Western Division with a 13-7 record, one game behind Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. Patrick Henry was 22-20 overall. Hurdle was a member of two Big 8 Softball Championship teams at Orange and started at first base as a freshman on the 2017 3A State Championship team. 

After graduation ceremonies over the weekend, there will be some Cedar Ridge Red Wolves and Orange Panthers who will make their debut for Alumni Update this August. Congratulations to all of these graduates. Among them will be:

Emerson Talley-Lenoir-Rhyne women’s soccer team

Kessel Summers-Bluefield College Wrestling 

Grady Ray-Methodist baseball

Will Walker-Pitt Community College

Bryce Clark-Lenoir Community College

Matt Hughes-Brunswick Community College 

Ivy Gardner-N.C. State women’s soccer team

After making the state baseball playoffs for the 19th consecutive year, Orange will hit the road to Randolph County.

The Panthers will face Mid-Piedmont Conference co-champion Asheboro in the opening round of the North Carolina School Athletic Association 3A State Playoffs. The preliminary brackets were released at 4:10PM Sunday afternoon. 

The Panthers will face the Blue Comets at 6PM on Tuesday night at McCrary Park, also the home of the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plan League. 

Orange, the co-champions of the Big 8 Conference, received a #11 seed in the predetermined brackets released by the NCHSAA. The winner of this game will meet the winner of #3 D.H. Conley vs. #14 Jacksonville in the second round. 

It’s a meeting between two teams that shared their respective conference championships. Because of the pandemic, last January the Big 8 Conference’s athletic directors approved a format for all sports where only the first meetings between conference rivals would count in the league standings. Orange clinched a state playoff birth on May 11 when they defeated Chapel Hill 5-0 at Tiger Field. Northern Durham earned the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference when they shut out the Panthers 4-0 in Hillsborough on May 18 behind a mammoth pitching performance from senior Matthew Lombard, who threw a 3-hit shutout in six-and-two-thirds innings with eleven strikeouts. 

It’s a game that hits close to home for Orange Coach Jason Knapp on several levels. Asheboro Head Coach Brett Hoogkamp played on Knapp’s junior varsity baseball team at Southwestern Randolph High School. Hoogkamp was also a quarterback for Southwestern Randolph’s football team.

On top of that, Knapp’s wife, Selina, graduated from Asheboro High. The Knapps celebrated their anniversary last week. 

Former Orange High star Joey Berini, who just finished the season with East Carolina in the Super Regionals of the NCAA Baseball Tournament, will spend his summer at McCrary Park. Berini has committed to play with the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League, a summer collegiate wooden-bat league. 

This season, Asheboro tied with Southeastern Guilford for the Mid-Piedmont Conference Championship. The Blue Comets are 12-2 overall, 10-2 in the Mid-Piedmont Conference. Asheboro opened the season 1-2 with losses to Southeastern Guilford and Southern Alamance, but concluded with eleven consecutive wins. Last Tuesday, the Blue Comets defeated previously undefeated Randleman, the champions of the 2A PAC-7 Conference. Asheboro ended the regular season with a nonconfence win over Chatham Central. 

Asheboro pitcher Caleb Walker, a senior who started against Randleman last Tuesday, has signed with Division II Catawba College. Another senior, Avery Jones, has made eight pitching appearances this season, including the season-ending win over Chatham Central last week. Jones has signed with Bluefield State College in West Virginia. 

The 3A State Tournament, paired down from 64 teams to 32 teams because of the pandemic, will start Tuesday. Even though Northern Durham captured the #1 seed from the Big 8 Conference, the Knights will not host a game in the opening round. Instead, the Knights will travel to Wilson to face Hunt. Northern received a #9 seed. The winner of Hunt-Northern will face either top-seeded Northern Guilford, the champions of the Mid-State Conference, or Cape Fear. 

Orange ended the regular season with a disappointing 12-8 loss to Northern Durham on Thursday. The Panthers led 5-0 going into the bottom of the third inning. Trailing 8-5, Northern scored seven runs in the sixth inning, going through three Panther pitchers. 

Orange senior starter Pierson Kenney had the longest stint of his career against the Knights. Kenney threw four inning and surrendered four runs off six hits. He left the game with Orange leading 6-4. 

Orange catcher Davis Horton singled in the sixth inning to conclude the year with a 15-game hitting streak. Horton had a hit in each regular season game this year. Panther second baseman Connor Funk went 3-for-3, including a two-run single in the third inning that brought in David Waitt and Will Walker to push Orange’s lead to 5-0. Funk also scored Orange’s first run after he reached on a bunt single in the 2nd inning. After Jaren Sikes hit a grounder to Northern third baseman Colin Scoggins, Funk scored off a throwing error, along with Joey Pounds.

You can hear Orange-Asheboro on Tuesday night on Hillsboroughsports.com.

Our Retro Orange Panther of the Week is Orange rising senior Avery Miller. Last year, the Orange volleyball team defeated defending 3A State Champion Chapel Hill 3-1 inside of an empty Orange High Gymnasium. Ordinarily, the gym would have been raucous after the Lady Panthers gained a long-awaited win over the Tigers, who had dominated the Panthers since the two teams became conference rivals again. Miller, playing the first game of her junior season, had five kills, four aces, five blocks and a team-high 29 serve receptions. Miller, the daughter of Orange High graduates Bobby and Jennifer Miller, had eight kills the following weeks in a 3-1 win over Northern Durham at Poe Gymtorium. She matched the eight kills in a 3-1 loss to Cedar Ridge. Like many volleyball players across the area, Miller has spent weekends during the spring playing across the region with her summer travel team. As soon as travel season ends, Miller will return to action to prepare for the upcoming season, which will start in August as Orange prepares for new league opponents in the Central Conference.

Arriving eight months later than usual, next weekend’s 3A Mideast Women’s Tennis Regionals will include a singles player from Cedar Ridge and a doubles team from Orange.

Cedar Ridge freshman Cameron Mayhew reached the semifinals of the Big 8 Conference Tournament inside Lindsay Linker Tennis Courts at East Chapel Hill High School on Wednesday afternoon. After receiving a bye into the second round Mayhew won her second round match 6-0, 6-0 to reach the semifinals. Mayhew fell in the semifinals to Northwood’s Evelyn Lippers 6-1, 6-3.

Mayhew is the younger sister of Cedar Ridge sophomore Josh Mayhew. Last month, Josh became the first Cedar Ridge singles player to ever reach the 3A State Men’s Tennis Championship match when he faced off against Chapel Hill’s Dennis Perumov.

A doubles team from Orange comprised of two freshmen reached the semifinals in the Big 8 Tournament. Finley White and Grace Pell advanced to the semifinals with a victory over a team from Northwood 6-4, 6-4.

Cedar Ridge’s Hannah Schinnick won her opening match 10-1, but fell in the second round against Northwood 6-1, 6-3. The Red Wolves’ doubles team of Raven Mowles-Aring and Annabeth Lundberg, both freshmen, won their opening match but lost in the second round 10-1.

The Mideast Regionals will be held at the Burlington Tennis Center starting Friday morning.

WRESTLING:

Over a two-day span, the Orange wrestling team faced the defending 4A State Dual Team Champions as well as the 2020 4A runners-up.

In a long road trip to Mecklenburg County on Tuesday night, 2020 State Champion Hough defeated Orange 46-24. In the same tri-meet, Mooresville Senior defeated the Panthers 37-27. It was the first dual losses of the season for Orange, who had won its opening 15 matches en route to the Big 8 Championship.

On Wednesday night, runner-up Cardinal Gibbons held off Orange 40-30 at Enloe High School. With no 3A State Dual Team Tournament taking place this year, the Panthers ended season 15-3.

Orange senior Kessel Summers defeated Hough’s Tyler Caldwell in 55 seconds. In 2020, Caldwell qualified for the 4A state championships at 120 pounds, where he defeated Riverside’s Issac Ramirez in the consolation round. Summers later faced Davis Freeze of Mooresville, who finished 2nd in the state in the 2020 3A 113-pound tournament. Freeze handed Summers his first loss of the season on a 6-0 decision.

Orange 220-pound senior Hayden Horne maintained his undefeated record on the season with three wins. Against Hough, Horne defeated Anthony Walker in 1:02. Horne held off Mooresville’s Ray Watson. Against the Crusaders, Horne pinned Liam Roldan in 2:20. Horne, who was an All-Big 8 Conference offensive lineman for the Orange football team, is now 13-0 with five pins.

At 170 pounds, Orange senior Henry Joubert-Stanzel defeated Brady Rabb of Mooresville 10-5. Against Hough, Joubert-Stanzel squeezed out a 10-8 decision over Alex Coward. Joubert-Stanzel suffered his first loss of 2021 to Cardinal Gibbons’s Savoy New, 10-4, on Wednesday and is now 15-1 on the year. He leads the team with seven pins.

Brandon Worsham, who qualified for the 3A State Championships last year, improved to 14-2 with six pins. At 182 pounds, Worsham decisioned Mooresville’s Desmond Jackson 11-9. Against Hough, Worsham pinned Matt Digerolamo in 58 seconds. On Wednesday, Worsham pinned Gibbons’ Anton Berg in 2:44.

On Tuesday, Cedar Ridge traveled to Kernersville to close its 2021 dual season. The Red Wolves lost to Ledford 51-30 and to the Glenn Bobcats 48-24.

Cedar Ridge senior Daina Pritchard improved to 22-1 on the season at 145-pounds with a pin over Ledford’s Caleb Brumett in 4:19. Pritchard also earned a forfeit win over Glenn.

Red Wolves senior James Rosati-Brown earned two more wins to boost his record for the season to 21-2. Rosati-Brown pinned Ledford’s  Diego Ponce-Gamez in 1:04.

In a preview of next week’s Women’s State Wrestling Tournament, Cedar Ridge’s Kady Watkins pinned Ledford’s Mahogony Brown in 1:36.

The 3A Mideast Regionals will be held at Eastern Guilford High School in Gibsonville on Tuesday. Eastern Guilford will host the 3A State Men’s Championships on June 26. The Women’s State Championships are set to take place next Saturday at Kernersville Glenn High School.

When Cedar Ridge senior Grady Ray took off his baseball uniform for the final time on Wednesday night, it ended years of service with Red Wolf athletics. Ray played baseball, basketball and football with Cedar Ridge. On the day of his final baseball game, Ray signed with Division III Methodist University, where he will play baseball with the Monarchs in Fayetteville. As fate would have it, Ray will compete in the USA South Athletic Conference against a former classmate, Phillip Berger, who is the winningest pitcher in Cedar Ridge history. Berger plays for William Peace University in Raleigh. This season, Ray started in left field. Among his senior highlights was going 1-for-3 against Northwood on opening night. He scored two runs as the Red Wolves won in Pittsboro for the first time since 2014. Ray was also a regular rotation player in basketball for Coach Jaison Brooks the past two seasons. Ray ended his stint on the hardwood with four straight wins over crosstown rival Orange.