North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
By JOHN SMITHSON
Wyatt Wheeler won his first two matches in the SCHSL Individual wrestling championships at Anderson on Saturday, but couldn’t repeat as state champion. Wheeler lost his bid for a second individual title in overtime to Peyton Schrader from Eastside High School in the final match of the 126 pound class.
Wheeler had a bye until the quarterfinal match in his bracket. He then beat Isaac Pereira from Easley to move to the semifinals, where he beat Emilio Mendoza to get to the championship match against Schrader.
This was the third year in a row where Wheeler ended up in the final match of the 4A wrestling championship. In 2021 Wheeler was a freshman and finished second in the 106 pound weight classification. Last year Wheeler won the state championship in the 120 pound class. Wheeler will be back in his senior year for one last run at a championship.
Wheeler’s wrestling teammate Brian Rouse won his first two matches in the 113 pound class to make the quarterfinals, but lost to Corey Dye from Northwestern in a 12-5 decision. Dye went on to win the Championship in that weight class.
Eastside was first in the final team rankings with 186.5 points. Lugoff-Elgin was second with 105 points and Greenwood was third with 77 points. Other 6AAAA region teams in the top 20 included South Florence in seventh place, North Myrtle Beach in 13th and Myrtle Beach in 17th place.
