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By Jed Blackwell

 

Polk County fell 46-25 Tuesday to R-S Central in a Mountain Foothills 7 wrestling matchup between North Carolina’s No. 2 team in 1A and No. 2 team in 2A. 

“That’s a really good program,” Wolverines coach Thomas Hensley said. “They have a bunch of older kids. We have a bunch of kids we’re relying on – and this is a good thing – who are freshmen and sophomores. That’s exciting. And I think we had some opportunities.”

The Hilltoppers got off to a quick start as they reeled off a major decision at 126 pounds, a pin at 138 pounds and a pair of decisions for a quick 16-0 advantage. In the decisions, Brody Wolfe was tied 7-7 at 132 pounds before an escape in the final seconds cost him a decision, and Jaxtyn Virgil led with just 45 seconds to wrestle before giving up a reversal and going on to fall 6-3.

“You can have knowledge, and you can have experience, but when you put the two together you have experience,” Hensley said. “We just need to have some more experience.”

Jacob Ed got a first-period pin at 150 pounds to cut the R-S Central lead to 16-6, but the Hilltoppers got consecutive pins themselves at 157 and 165 to stretch it to 28-6. Zalen McCraw rallied with a second-period pin at 175 to make it 28-12, but that’s as close as Polk County could get. Pins at 190 and 215 and a forfeit at heavyweight gave R-S Central an insurmountable 46-12 advantage.

The Wolverines closed the match out well as Cole Huntley took a technical fall at 106 pounds, Liam Jackson won 10-3 at 113 pounds, and Efrain Rivera had a dominant 16-2 tech fall in the first period at 120.

Hensley said the Wolverines will grow from the loss.

“We’ve just got to wash it,” he said. “We’re a 1A team, they’re a 2A team. Ultimately, we can go through the 1A West and do really well and this doesn’t matter.

“We can still do the thing, and I feel really positive and really excited about it. This is not a funeral. We’re going to wash it and we’re going to be fine. We’re going to be resilient and tough just like we always are.”