Fort Mill, NaFo combine for four Upper State champions

The Fort Mill Yellow Jackets and Nation Ford Falcons combined Saturday to crown four Upper State champions and send nine wrestlers overall to this coming weekend’s state tournament in Anderson.

Fort Mill’s AJ Leitten (138) and Stephen Hamilton (145) and Nation Ford’s Jeremy Kishbaugh (106) and Dalen Byerley (132) all won Upper State titles.

The Upper State tournament was held Friday and Saturday at Rock Hill High with those finishing in the top four in each weight class qualifying for the state tournament at the Anderson Civic Center.

Fort Mill brought 13 wrestlers to the tournament and qualified six. Nation Ford brought eight and qualified three.

“I felt honestly we could have qualified anywhere between four to 13,” said Fort Mill wrestling coach Chris Brock. “That six to eight number is where we should have been. We had a couple of guys make some mental mistakes.”

Leitten beat York’s Zeke Bean 13-2 for the Upper State title at 138 pounds and Hamilton held on against Dorman’s Shanard Bain 2-1 to claim his title.

Besides Leitten and Hamilton, Fort Mill had four other wrestlers place at the Upper State tournament and qualify. Jack Debbout (170) finished second after falling 6-2 in the finals to Dorman’s Luke Rutherford. The Jackets’ John Brotemarkle finished third at 113 pounds to qualify. Both Brody Claassen (120) and Jordan Markowski (132) finished fourth to qualify for state.

For Nation Ford, Kishbaugh pinned Boiling Springs’ Drew Thomas in the third period to win the Upper State title and Byerley beat Byrnes’ Addison Christopher 5-1 to secure his title victory.

Besides Kishbaugh and Byerley, only Jacob Gravely (170) qualified for the state tournament for Nation Ford. He finished fourth to qualify.

“It’s not the number we were looking for,” said Nation Ford head coach Leon Boulware.

“We were three points away from having six qualifiers. But I feel good about the guys we got coming back next year.”

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Fort Mill, NaFo combine for four Upper State champions."