By Tim Gardner
Avery County rallied from a late nine-point deficit to defeat Uwharrie Charter, 39-30, February 5 at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex Fieldhouse to win a fourth consecutive North Carolina High School Athletics Association 1-A wrestling state championship.
Avery finished the season with a stellar 36-2 record.
The Vikings have won the last four NCHSAA titles available — winning both the dual-team and the team-tournament title in 2020, winning the team-tournament in 2021 when dual-team was not available and the dual-team again this season.
Avery also beat Uwharrie Charter to win the 2020 state championship.
And this 2022 Avery High state championship wrestling team, like all others in school history, has set a legacy all its own and will inspire future Viking wrestlers, individually and collectively as a team, to strive to the zenith to accomplish the same feats.
In this season’s state title match, Avery senior Levi Andrews pinned the Eagles’ Jake Morin in just 50 seconds in the 285-pound class, which jump started a five-match winning streak by the Vikings that answered Uwharrie Charter’s previous five-match winning run.
In the match before Andrews, Jaden Marion of Uwharrie, wrestling with a broken jaw, won 4-0 over Avery’s Zach Vance, the most valuable wrestler of the 2020 state title tilt, who was coming off a knee injury. That gave the Eagles a 24-15 lead, and after the win by Andrews, the Vikings still trailed 24-21.
The remaining four wins in Avery’s streak came from a highly-successful group of underclassmen that propelled the Vikings to the championship. 106-pound freshman Cooper Foster, 113-pound sophomore Benjamin Jordan, 120-pound freshman Kenneth Pritz and 126-pound sophomore Grant Reece have a combined record of 161-19 this season.
Foster held on for a 4-3 win over the Eagles’ Ethan Hines to tie the dual at 24-24. Jordan then had a first-round pin over Uwharrie Charter’s Brandon Jordan to put the Vikings up for good at 30-24, Pritz next had another early win by pinfall against the Eagles’ Aiden Allred to provide Avery a 36-24 cushion. And finally, Reece rolled to a 7-1 win in the 126-pound class against Uwharrie Charter’s Jack McArthur that pushed Avery to a 39-24 lead and put the Eagles away.
Pritz was named the state tournament’s most valuable wrestler.
The Vikings battled through injuries and COVID-19 holdouts forcing them to use various, and previously unchartered lineups in the season. But their talent, determination and downright refusal to finish over-all anywhere but first place, added to their dynasty of state championships.
Avery head coach Matthew Dunn said in various media reports following the championship victory: “It was a nerve-wracking season from the start We didn’t do anything the easy way. Instead of worrying about how good we were in December, how good we were in January, we just kept the big picture. Some (state championship) matches went ways we weren’t planning on. But we had some freshmen and sophomores who really came in and they pulled it through for us.”
138-pound senior Ethan Shell, who has signed with Appalachian State University, where he will wrestle for head coach Matthew Bentley, a former Avery High All-American, began the dual with a quick pin. Then a pin from Tristan Adams at 152 pounds gave the Vikings a 15-0 lead after three matches.
But Uwharrie Charter (35-1), which won the 2019 dual-team wrestling title, still seemed poised to stop the Vikings’ title streak during the first half of the matches. After Avery’s fifteen-point lead, the Eagles reeled off its five consecutive wins, including by Jair Ulloa in the 145-pound match against Avery’s Johnathan Cable, Grayson Roberts against defending individual state champion Bradley Parker at 160 pounds and from Doug Bowles over defending runner-up Seth Blackledge in a 170-pound class match he was trailing by points.
Those helped the Eagles claim the 24-15 lead.
Still, the Vikings proved they had what it took to prevail.
*Avery County versus Uwharrie Charter 1A dual state championship match-by-match results:
138: Ethan Shell (Avery County) pinned Byan Lackey, 1:28. (6-0 Avery County)
145: Johnathan Cable (Avery County) defeated Jair Ulloa, 5-2. (9-0 Avery County)
152: Tristan Adams (Avery County) pinned Carson Robinson, 3:45. (15-0 Avery County)
160: Grayson Roberts (Uwharrie Charter) defeated Bradley Parker, 6-4. (15-3 Avery County)
170: Doug Bowles (Uwharrie Charter) pinned Seth Blackledge, 5:14. (15-9 Avery County)
182: Jaden Maness (Uwharrie Charter) pinned Lane Hoilman, 3:34. (15-15 tie)
195: Aiden Carter (Uwharrie Charter) pinned Brandon Cabrera, 2:52. (21-15 Uwharrie Charter)
220: Jaden Marion (Uwharrie Charter) defeated Zach Vance, 4-0. (24-15 Uwharrie Charter)
285: Levi Andrews (Avery County) pinned Jake Morin, 0:50. (24-21 Uwharrie Charter)
106: Cooper Foster (Avery County) defeated Ethan Hines, 4-3. (24-24 tie)
113: Benjamin Jordan (Avery County) pinned Brandon Jordan, 0:44. (30-24 Avery County)
120: Kenneth Pritz (Avery County) pinned Aiden Allred, 1:33. (36-24 Avery County)
126: Grant Reece (Avery County) defeated Jack McArthur, 7-1. (39-24 Avery County)
132: Aldo Hernandez (Uwharrie Charter), won by forfeit. (39-30 Avery County)
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