Different year, same result.
St. Stephens High captured its fourth straight Catawba Valley Athletic 2A-3A Conference tournament wrestling championship on Saturday at Hickory High.
"Anytime you can win the conference tournament, it's special," said St. Stephens head coach Billy Baker. "This is a good group of kids. I thought we wrestled pretty well today."
The conference tournament title was St. Stephens' ninth in 10 seasons.
The Indians finished with 236.5 points, 57.5 in front of second-place Newton-Conover (179). Bandys placed third with 109.5 points, followed by Hibriten (87), West Caldwell (78), Fred T. Foard (76), Maiden (70), Bunker Hill (38), Patton (36.5) and Hickory (25).
Regular-season CVAC champion St. Stephens and second-place Newton-Conover dominated the tournament.
St. Stephens had 10 wrestlers in championship matches and the Red Devils had six. The Indians captured six weight titles and Newton-Conover won three.
St. Stephens placed 14 wrestlers in the top four and Newton-Conover had 10 in the top four.
"Overall we wrestled pretty good," said Newton-Conover head coach Eddy Clark. "The kids wrestled up to their seeds and we won a few that we weren't suppose to."
Newton-Conover and St. Stephens went head-to-head three times with St. Stephens winning twice.
St. Stephens' champions were Ray Farnsworth (103), Kurt Stephens (119), Cody Stephens (125), Gunnar McDowell (145), Logan Self (171) and Steven Rink (189).
Newton-Conover's individual champions were Charlie Avis (135), Matt Owensby (140) and Ethan Carter (160).
Ten wrestlers completed the regular-season unbeaten in the conference in their weight class: Farnsworth (11-0), Kurt Stephens (12-0), Cody Stephens (12-0), Avis (12-0), McDowell (11-0), Carter (12-0), Self (12-0), Rink (12-0), Zoi Quellette of Hibriten (12-0), and Bandys' Brock Durfee (12-0).
Quellette was named conference wrestler of the year, and Fred T. Foard's Mike Carey was named coach of the year.
One of the more exciting Saturday matches was at 152 pounds, where Bandys' Chris Wellborn pinned St. Stephens' Brandon Lackey at the 3:34 mark after trailing 4-1.
Wellborn took a 5-4 lead early in the second period and sealed the match with the pin. It was the first individual conference title for the junior (9-2), who is in his first year of varsity competition.
Despite falling behind 4-1 in the first period, Wellborn wasn't worried.
"He got tired in the second and started gassing out, and I put the pressure on him," said Wellborn. "I wasn't worried … as long as I kept pressure on him in the second and third, I knew I could win."
Winners in other weight classes were:
>>>> Corbyn Spurrier of Maiden at 112 pounds with a pin against Seth White of Bandys at the 5:26 mark.
>>>> Matt Wooten (West Caldwell) at 130 pounds with a 8-2 win over St. Stephens' Alex Pollard.
>>>> Quellette defeated St. Stephens' Michael Ellis 3-1 at 215 pounds.
>>>> Durfee pinned Newton-Conover's Andrew Tremain at the 1:48 mark.
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