Area high school wrestling schedule cranks into high gear

While basketball gets all the headlines, thinks are about to pick up on the wrestling mat as well.

Following a bevy of events last month, match ups with region opponents — along with foes at the Horry/Georgetown County wrestling meet — have arrived. With that in mind, several area wrestlers will have an opportunity to prove their recent state rankings courtesy of SCMAT were by no means a fluke.

Five Grand Strand area wrestling teams found themselves in the rankings, released at the end of December.

Carolina Forest was the only local Class 5A squad to be ranked, coming in at No. 13. It is led by John Winzenried, who is No. 2 in the classification at the 152-pound weight class. Teammates Joe Muniz and Andol Johnson come in eighth at the 106 and 160 pounds, respectively.

Each of the three area Class 4A squads were given the nod by SCMAT, with Myrtle Beach coming in at No. 15, St. James right behind them at No. 16 and North Myrtle Beach coming in 18th.

The Seahawks are led by senior Stephen Desjardins, ranked second in the 182-pound weight class. Daniel Mitchell placed fifth at the 220-pound level, while Pedro Reyes and Jacob Cisco each received high marks among wrestlers meeting the 285-pound limit.

Only Brandon Ellis earned recognition this time around for St. James, coming at No. 6 at the 152-pound level. He and North Myrtle Beach’s Rahsaan Vereen could be on a collision course, the Chiefs’ grappler ranked No. 4 in the same weight class.

Brennan Michael and Curtis Wolfe also represented North Myrtle Beach in SCMAT’s rankings, the former coming in at No. 4 at 145 pounds statewide while the latter was No. 3 for those at the 170-pound limit.

Aynor was No. 15 in Class 3A, according to the state wrestling organization. Seth Sarvis came in at No. 3 at the 132-pound level, while DreQwan McCray earned mention among those at the 152-pound mark.

Individually, Loris’ Timothy Bell was No. 3 among those at 170 pounds statewide, with Waccamaw’s Jack Cook right behind him at No. 4 in the weight class.

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Area high school wrestling schedule cranks into high gear."