Raiders frustrate Fury, advance to state title tilt
Laurens defeated Fountain Inn Wednesday to advance to the Class 4A state duals championship for the first time in school history.
The Laurens wrestling team made school history Wednesday night, advancing to the Class 4A state duals championship and simultaneously winning the Upper State title for the first time.
To get both the finals berth and the Upper State championship, LDHS defeated Fountain Inn 43-29 in a rematch between Region 1-4A foes.
The Raiders are set to face May River Saturday afternoon for the Class 4A state championship at Dreher High School in Columbia. May River defeated Aiken 46-23 for the Lower State title Wednesday night.
Laurens defeated the Fury for the second time in as many meetings this season, the first being a 39-31 Region 1-4A win at Emerald in January.
FIHS head coach Brandon Johnson shuffled his lineup, moving some of his top wrestlers, including Xeviel Gonzalez, Cru Hall and Landon Bledsoe up in weight classes in an effort to find additional points, but that strategy didn’t pay off when all was said and done.
“Do you want to do things differently and improve or do you want to keep banging your head against the wall?” Johnson said. “So, we tried something tonight, and it didn’t work.”
The Fury opened the match with a pinfall victory by Evan Coons over Ke’shun Robinson at 132 pounds.
But the Raiders answered with three straight victories by the heart of its lineup in the middle weights and took an early 13-6 lead they never relinquished.
On the night, Laurens notched five pinfall victories – by Dakota McCall, Gage Kemph, Zaine Kellett, Kai McCall and Crisley Martin – and a technical fall from Leyden Gentry among its wins.
“I’m really excited – this was our goal for the whole year,” said LDHS head coach Lawson Jordan. “We’ve been building on it since last year, and we knew we wanted nothing less than winning Upper State and getting to (the state finals).”
With the win, the No. 3-ranked Raiders improved to 32-3 on the season.
May River, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, cruised through its bracket as the top seed from the Lower State, and Jordan said the Sharks certainly present a challenge.
“We’ve got great matches all throughout the lineup,” Jordan said. I just really hope we go down there and complete. I’ve wrestled in a state championship team dual, and I’ve coached in one, and I know how stressful they can be when the lights come on and hit you if you’re not ready.”
Laurens’ Kai McCall scored a pinfall victory over Connor Martens Wednesday night.
Laurens 43, Fountain Inn 29
132: Evan Coons (FI) pinned Ke’shun Robinson
138: Dakota McCall (LDHS) pinned Mason Coons
144: Mikey Aiken (LDHS) def. Jack Carnes 10-5
150: Leyden Gentry (LDHS) def. Nathan Aguilar 21-7 (technical fall)
157: Caden Carnes (FI) def. Jonathan Pagoada 15-3 (technical fall)
165: Gage Kemph (LDHS) pinned Andrew Davis
175: Zaine Kellett (LDHS) pinned Kayze Hall
190: Cru Hall (FI) pinned Zy Priestley
215: Michael Brown (LDHS) def. Landon Bledsoe 7-6
Hvy: Xeviel Gonzalez (FI) pinned Jorden Strout
106: Crisley Martin (LDHS) pinned Dacus Johnson
113: Abel Miles (LDHS) def. Ian Callon 13-7
120 Kai McCall (LDHS) pinned Connor Martens
126: Ryan Ferrell (FI) won by forfeit
