Area schools put up fight but fall short as Marion wins inaugural Battle at the Beach wrestling event

While the Marion wrestling team ran away with a win Saturday, St. James picked up some much-needed momentum heading into the thick of its Region VII-AAA schedule.

The Sharks finished fourth, but Marion didn’t drop a single match en route to a 6-0 record for the day and a victory at the 10-team inaugural Battle at the Beach tournament hosted by the Myrtle Beach Seahawks, who finished second.

“The competition was good, but Marion ran away with it; it wasn’t even close. They stomped everybody,” said St. James coach Matt Anderson, whose team was 5-1 on the day. “They looked really well, but the rest of us were all just fighting for second place. Our guys are doing fine; we’re looking good for our region [schedule]. We just need to get a couple of tweaks in there fixed. We’ll see if we can get it right.”

St. James – the No. 7 team in Class AAA, according to scmat.com – is led by seniors Michael Mewhorter (145 pounds) and Aaron Foster (285 pounds), who are both ranked No. 1 in the state in their respective weight classes.

“[Foster and Mewhorter] are huge for us. They’re both ranked No. 1 and doing a really good job,” Anderson said. “We have a few other guys in the middle that are stepping up and looking really strong, too.”

Under the leadership of Foster and Mewhorter, the Sharks are hoping to go far. St. James senior Chase Smith is ranked fourth at 113 pounds, Tyler Wiggins (132 pounds) is also fourth in the state and Brandon Ellis is quickly rising in the 138-pound division.

“We have four or five guys pushing to get something at the end of the year,” Anderson said. “They have their eyes on a title.”

With a victory over Georgetown already under their belt, the Sharks hope to cruise through the rest of Region VII-AAA.

But first, they want to focus on trying to win the Horry/Georgetown Invitational next week.

“We really needed to come get in four or five matches and still have a whole week of practice to get ready for the Horry/Georgetown [Invitational] next weekend,” Anderson said. “We’ll get ready for a region run after that.”

St. James grappler Spencer Deegan knows it won’t be an easy ride through Region VII-AAA as the Sharks still have to take on the Lake City, North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach. The Chiefs are ranked 13th, and the Seahawks are No. 16 in Class AAA, according to scmat.com.

But Deegan believes his squad is superior and is up for the task.

“We have a lot of good wrestlers and we’re confident,” the senior said. “I’m excited for us to get after it in region play; we’re not intimidated at all. There’s some good teams, but I think we’re better than a lot of them.”

Marion prevails without leader, gets hardware

Marion was without head coach Michael Steinbar as he had to deal with a junior varsity individual qualifier on Saturday.

But the Swamp Foxes will be bringing back a championship trophy for their coach.

“It’s a team sport and they’re all hard workers,” said Marion assistant coach Adam Work, who stepped in for Steinbar on Saturday. “We had a good all-around performance and represented [Steinbar] well. He is probably the best technical coach there is and we try to learn a lot from him, but really encourage each other. These guys wrestle each other so much at practice; we just want to outdo everyone in conditioning and character.”

Marion performed Saturday like the top Class AA program it is. The Swamp Foxes – No. 1 in Class AA/A, according to Scmat.com – boast five No. 1 wrestlers. Junior Dilan Gillard (113 pounds), seniors Troy Vick-Timmons (126 pounds), Rashaun Davis (152 pounds), Ta’Jon Jordan (160 pounds), Harold Mearite (195 pounds) are all at the top of their respective weight classes.

“We have a lot of guys that are ranked No. 1, but we really try not to think about the individual side of it,” Work said. “We really go hard in practice. Conditioning is what we try to win at.”

While it wasn’t exactly a close finish, Work knew his kids had to grind for a victory against some tough Grand Strand teams like St. James, Myrtle Beach, Aynor, Carolina Forest and Waccamaw.

“It wasn’t too close today. Myrtle Beach gave us a pretty good fight, and St. James is a pretty good contest,” he said. “They’re both [in Class AAA]. We also beat [Class AAAA] Carolina Forest and we’re only a [Class] AA team, so that speaks well for us. But our guys are just determined to win on the mat.”

Heading into the region slate, Work has every reason to believe the Swamp Foxes will keep it up.

“I think this gives us a lot of momentum,” Work said. “We have about three weeks with Lower States coming up and then [the state championship], and today’s performance really encouraged them to [get there] with wins over AAAA and AAA teams. So, I think we’ll take a lot from it.”

Host school comes up just short, proud of inaugural tournament

While Myrtle Beach finished undefeated at 5-0 Saturday, it didn’t have enough points to pass Marion.

Still, coach James Kratzer was pleased with the turnout of the Battle at the Beach.

“It was a great day for us in Myrtle Beach here,” Kratzer said. “Although Marion scored more points, I couldn’t be more proud of the guys doing what they did in our first ever tournament here and we’re representing ourselves pretty well.”

Kratzer also noticed the strength of the wrestling scene along the Grand Strand.

“It was great competition; it’s one of the main reasons we started this tournament,” he said. “We want to go up against good competition inside and outside Horry County. This really gave us a chance to see some other teams we normally wouldn’t see and we also saw some familiar faces. St. James had a good day, Carolina Forest had a good day as well. Wrestling in this area is getting a lot better.

“… It was a good crowd today; I appreciate everyone coming out. Our guys got to wrestle a lot of matches today and everyone wrestled hard. We’re just growing as a program and it’s exciting to see this, exciting to see this many people out here and a lot of different sponsors and restaurants donated to get this going; I appreciate all they do.”

Myrtle Beach also got off on the right foot in Region VII-AAA, beating Lake City 66-12 last Thursday. Kratzer is eager to see if his team can keep things rolling in such a solid region.

“It’s a tough region; St. James is tough competition, so is North Myrtle Beach,” he said. “We know it’s not going to be easy, but [winning the region] is our goal since the beginning of the year. If we keep wrestling hard, anything is a possibility.”

As for the future of Battle at the Beach?

“This will be a year-to-year thing,” Kratzer said. “We’re going to keep it going as we continue to build the program and continue to grow Myrtle Beach wrestling.

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Area schools put up fight but fall short as Marion wins inaugural Battle at the Beach wrestling event."