Fort Mill sending 6 wrestlers to South Carolina championships

Six Fort Mill High School wrestlers are headed to the 5A individual state wrestling championships this week in Anderson.

Led by undefeated, two-time state champion AJ Leitten, Fort Mill crowned two Upper State champions at the Upper State individual tournament last weekend in Laurens. Leitten (138) and Jake Hart (145) both won Upper State titles. Leitten beat Woodmont’s Garrett Starks 19-2 in the finals and Hart pinned Hillcrest’s Walker Stephenson, who was previously undefeated going into the match.

Fort Mill’s Brody Claassen finished second at 126 pounds after losing to top-ranked Addison Christopher from Byrnes 12-3. Two Fort Mill wrestlers, Nick Greek (132) and Wade Brock (195), both finished third in their weight class. Greek pinned No. 1 seed Dylan Faulk of Riverside in the consolation finals and Brock won 6-2 over Laurens’ Sho’Keil Moses. The Jackets’ Jacob Sturgeon finished fourth at 113. He lost in the consolation finals to Byrnes’ Nick Murray.

The Jackets took 13 wrestlers to the Upper State tournament and head coach Chris Brock had hoped to take more than six of them to the state tournament this weekend.

“We would love to take everybody,” Brock said. “We were looking at seven to nine. We have had better weekends, but the Upper State tournament is a tough tournament.”

Nation Ford had a particularly rough weekend at the Upper State tournament bringing 10 wrestlers to the tournament, but only qualifying one, 182-pounder Jake Gravely, for the state tournament. Gravely finished third by pinning No. 1 seed Carl Manigan from Spartanburg in the consolation finals.

“We got guys that can do it,” Falcons head coach Dan Snell said. “We just need a mindset that we can win and train constantly.”

Falcons career wins leader Jeremy Kishbaugh got a tough second day draw at 120 pounds and dropped two straight matches to Dorman’s Josh Aquino and Rock Hill’s Justin Beck, the top two seeds in the weight class. Kishbaugh finished his career as Nation Ford’s all-time wins leader with 133 career wins.

Clover will be sending three wrestlers to states, while Rock Hill will be sending six and Northwestern one.

This story was originally published February 20, 2017 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Fort Mill sending 6 wrestlers to South Carolina championships."