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Davie Dominates Regional, Qualifies 12 For State
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| Junior Zack Vernon has been amazing. He’s 52-5 with 12 straight wins. - Photo by James Barringer |
Coming back with a vengeance, the War Eagles turned in four first-place finishes, five runner-ups, two third places and one fourth en route to qualifying 12 for this weekend’s state championships at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem.
To get an idea how amazing the 12 achievement is, consider Lowery had never seen more than 10 qualify over his long career and consider no other team qualified more than nine.
“I don’t think I’ve taken 12 before. I’m 99 percent sure,” Lowery said. “We’ve taken 10. We wrestled good.”
With 19 teams crammed into NW Guilford, Davie piled up 256.5 points to second-place Robinson’s 207.5 and handed Lowery his 16th regional championship, including two straight. The top four in each weight class earned state berths. Among 1A/2A, 3A and 4A, no other team qualified more than nine. In 4A, Robinson had nine top-four finishers, while Butler, Cary, Seventy-First and West Forsyth had seven apiece.
“I knew our team all together was really good individually,” senior Rusty O’Connor said. “I kind of expected 13.”
The Davie champions were sophomore Michael Waters (114), junior Zack Vernon (132) and seniors O’Connor (162) and Aaron Peoples (285). The runner-ups were freshman Alex Costner (105); sophomores Shelton Sales (142), Matt Cusack (154) and Ricky Bell (217); and junior Jonathan Hupp (173). Junior Matt Garretson (147) and sophomore Jon San Filippo (191) placed third. And junior Kevin Whitley (127) was fourth.
Four Champions
After steamrolling two opponents by a combined score of 32-1, Waters got a chance at payback. His counterpart in the finals was Robinson’s Caleb Swinson, who stunned Waters with a come-from-behind pin the week before. Waters bullied Swinson 14-4 for his eighth loss in 55 matches.
“(Swinson) didn’t score any off Waters,” Lowery said. “Waters took him down and cut him loose.”
“We knew he was going to get after him because it was a redemption match ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.