Fort Mill dominates NaFo, wraps up Region IV title

The Fort Mill High School Yellow Jackets wrestling team wrapped up its first 5A region title in the sport finishing the Region IV schedule with a perfect record after beating rival Nation Ford 64-12.

Fort Mill head coach Chris Brock said winning the region title this year was special because it isn’t something always within reach.

“We have hit some road bumps in recent years with injuries and mistakes on our part,” he said. “This year has been fun. Winning the region is nice if for nothing else for getting a home playoff match, but our goal and plan is still to win a state title and that hasn’t changed.”

Fort Mill wrestled a solid dual meet against the Falcons after Nation Ford jumped out to a 6-0 lead with the help of Jeremy Kishbaugh, who got a third period pin at 120 pounds. The pin by Kishbaugh gave him a 130 career wins, tying the school record held by Stewart Snodgrass.

After the win, Fort Mill picked up a major decision by Brody Claassen at 126 pounds to get on the board and then got a decision from Joseph Banny at 132 to put the Jackets in the lead – and they wouldn’t relinquish it.

Fort Mill went on to win the next five matches to go up 37-6 with wins coming from AJ Leitten (138), Jake Hart (145), Malik Campbell (152), Jordan Markowski (160) and Caden Haverson (170). Nation Ford got back on the board as Jake Gravely picked up a first period pin at 182 pounds to make it 37-12.

The Jackets finished out the match winning five straight matches as Wade Brock (195), Jack Kelley (220), Jaquan Johnson (285), Jackson Strong (106) and Jacob Sturgeon (113) all got wins for Fort Mill.

Nation Ford ended the regular season with a 14-12 record. Their playoff possibilities are up in the air as four of the top five teams in the region make the playoffs, but they, Clover and Northwestern all finished the region a 1-3 record. Falcons head coach Dan Snell said his team is young, but needs to keep pushing forward to get better.

“We got a get guys to buy into what we are doing and make sacrifices to get to the next level,” he said.

The first round of the playoffs start Feb. 4 with the first and second round being the same day at home for Fort Mill. It is still unknown which team Fort Mill will have in the first round.

This story was originally published January 25, 2017 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Fort Mill dominates NaFo, wraps up Region IV title."