North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
The North Myrtle Beach High School wrestling team traveled to Bluffton for the 4A SC High School Individual wrestling competition last Friday and Saturday. After two long days of matches the Chiefs qualified five team members for the individual state finals to be held in Anderson on February 22 and 23.
Chiefs wrestlers met counterparts from teams across the lower state. If they lost a match up to and including the semifinals, then they would go into the consolation bracket of the competition. If they did not lose again, they would finish in third place. Otherwise, winners would progress through the semis and finals.
The results that follow cover two days of matches. The weight class is in parenthesis.
In Friday’s quarterfinals (126) Marcus Spann of Beaufort pinned Rodrigo Velazquez of North Myrtle Beach in 3:57. (145) Chiefs Jackie Gore pinned J. Mathis of North Augusta in 56 seconds. (170) Chase Simmons of NMB won a decision over Grant Tucker of Hartsville 9-3. (195) Marcelous Livingston Pinned T. Nelson from Brookland-Cayce in 2:27. Chiefs Curtis Wolfe (220) pinned Dan Granade from Midland Valley in 43 seconds and (285) Malachi Black (NMB) won a decision over Myrtle Beach’s Quamil Spells 3-2.
In the consolation second round (113) EJ Vereen decisioned D. Witkowski from Bluffton 6-2. (126) Rodrigo Velazquez decisioned T. Hilderbrand (Brookland-Cayce) 11-4. (152) Chiefs Blake Jenkins pinned O. Plane (BC) in 4:00 and (160) Andre Giddens (NMB) pinned Jacob Brown from Orangeburg-Wilkinson in 1:00.
Saturday morning’s competition began at 9 a.m. with the championship semifinals. (145) NMB’s Jackie Gore got things started by pinning Wyatt Wilson of Hartsville in 37 seconds. (170) Ben Aguirre from Dreher won over NMB’s Chase Simmons in a 9-5 decision. (195) Marcelous Livingston of NMB .decisoned Midland Valley’s Lane Owenby 9-4 and Chiefs Curtis Wolfe pinned Kenny Matlock of Hartsville in 1:30. Lower Richland’s Dequan Mitchell pinned NMB’s Malachi Black in the first period.
The third round of consolation matches included several Chief wrestlers. (113) Alex Chavis from Brookland-Cayce won a 12-7 decision over NMB’s EJ Vereen. (126) Drew Dowling from South Aiken won a decision over Rodrigo Velazquez 9-3. (152) Siris Liptak of Bluffton decisoned NMB’s Blake Jenkins 7-5 and (160) Andre Giddens (NMB) pinned Tyrik Mills from Hartsville in the second two-minute period.
The consolation semifinals had three Chiefs still in the running. (160) Chiefs Andre Giddens lost an 18-5 major decision to Jerimiah Simmons of Beaufort. (170) Chase Simmons from NMB then won a 5-3 decision over Dustin Yazzie. (285) Malachi Black (NMB) won a 9-2 decision over South Aiken’s Ethan New.
In the consolation finals two Chiefs won. (170) Chase Simmons won a 9-3 decision over Hartsville’s Grant Tucker and (285) Malachi Black won by forfeit.
The championship finals saw Chiefs (145) Jackie Gore win a decision over Airport’s Gavin Carrion by a 5-4 margin. (195) Tyrese Pressey from Colleton County pinned Chief Marcelous Livingston in 1:09. Chiefs Curtis Wolfe (220) won a decision over South Aiken’s J’Shon Horn by a 5-3 score.
North Myrtle Beach finished the competition with two in first place (145) Jackie Gore and (220) Curtis Wolfe. (195) Marcelous Livingston took second place. (170) Chase Simmons and (285) Malachi Black both finished in third place through the consolation match victories.
All five Chiefs travel to Anderson this weekend for the state individual 4A championships. First place in the lower state meets the fourth place finisher in the upper state championships. Second place meets the third place winner. This is repeated for all weight classes.
