St. James’ Mewhorter claims state wrestling individual title
All that Michael Mewhorter could think about was a loss in the finals of last year’s Class AAA individual state wrestling tournament.
It motivated the St. James senior to get it done this time around.
Mewhorter edged Pickens grappler Brett Brezeale – ranked No. 4 in Class AAA, according to SCMat.com – in the finals of the 145-pound division at the 2016 Class AAA individual state tournament in Anderson, ending his high school career on top.
“It feels great. I’ve done a lot of hard work the whole four years with my coaches, teammates and family. It just feels great to not only win a state title for myself, but to do it for them, too. They helped me every step of the way,” said Mewhorter, ranked No. 1 in Class AAA, according to SCMat.com. “All that hard work has paid off and it feels good.”
But that sinking feeling from last year’s finals pushed Mewhorter, along with his teammates.
“It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, getting so close but not being able to get it,” he said. “You just wake up every day thinking about it, working that much harder for it. I didn’t want to have that feeling again. … But I’m very proud of them; everybody. They push me every day and I pushed them every day. It sucks to not end the season with a state title for them too, but they were all happy for me to get mine.”
St. James coach Matt Anderson and assistant Ryan Lohman commended Mewhorter, saying it has been an honor to coach him the past four seasons and was happy to see the senior finish his career with a bang.
“Michael has been around every year and he’s a super great kid. Nobody is more deserving to win it than him,” Anderson said. “He busted his butt in the offseason wrestling year-round, running on the beach and coach Lohman trains with him all the time. He was kind of screwed out of the state finals by a bad call and came back and sort of vindicated that with his friends and family here with him; they got to witness it.”
Mewhorter’s teammate Aaron Foster, a senior heavyweight competitor, came up just short of being named a state champion. Foster – No. 1 at 285 pounds, according to SCMat.com – fell to West-Oak’s Gavin James (No. 2) in quadruple overtime as James got an escape in final frame, and Foster was named runner-up.
Mewhorter and teammate Tyler Wiggins, who finished fifth at 126 pounds Saturday, both made the North-South All-Star match, which will be held at North Myrtle Beach High School on Friday and Saturday. However, Foster was snubbed and saw his high school career end as a runner-up.
“It’s disappointing. We thought he had a good shot of taking this kid down, he just couldn’t quite get the takedown,” Anderson said of Foster. “I feel like we were a little bit bigger, and stronger, but didn’t have enough to get it done. He took it hard at first, but he’s doing OK with it now. It was heartbreaking. His whole family was here and they would’ve loved to see him finish it off.”
To make matters more serious, Foster missed all of last season with a shoulder injury that he suffered on the football field – a decision Foster made himself. So it was a somber finish to his high school career in Anderson on Saturday.
“He came close to being a state qualifier his freshman and sophomore years; like one match away. Then to miss his junior year and come up short now, I know it made him think,” Anderson said. “He might have had some regret.”
Nonetheless, Foster’s family, school and community are appreciative of his hard work over the years.
“We appreciate our guys. Chase Smith and Michael Mewhorter will both be going to North-South, which is a good honor for them. I’m not sure how Aaron got looked over for that, he should have been there for sure,” Anderson said.
Said Mewhorter: “We’re proud of him.”
Mewhorter and Foster are both expected to make the jump to the collegiate level, although neither is sure of where they may end up.
“My ultimate goal is to wrestle at Appalachian State,” Mewhorter said. “But we’ll see how it goes.”
Said Anderson: “I hope they both take it to the next level; there’s some schools showing interest in getting them to wrestle. They both have done a great job representing St. James.”
The Sharks finished eighth as a team Saturday with 45 points, while Hilton Head – which beat St. James in the second round of the Class AAA Lower State tournament – took first (93 points).
St. James also had seven grapplers qualify for the tournament, while a few came up just short of placing in the top four.
“It was a good trip. We took seven guys and it’s great to take that many with us. The guys battled back in the consolations, and had three of them just a round away from placing. There was some tough competition,” Anderson said. “[Tyler] Wiggins, Brandon Ellis and Chase Smith were all one match away from getting into the consolation finals for third or fourth and came up just short. Overall, the team wrestled hard and the competition up here was really good. There’s a lot of kids in these brackets that were all returning state champs. We’ve got our heads up and I think we represented our area really well. We were really the only ones that did well out there.”
And without Mewhorter, Foster and eight other seniors next year, Anderson will certainly have a challenge on his hands as St. James makes the jump to Class AAAA.
“It’s going to be difficult for us. But we’ll see what we get coming into our area,” Anderson said. “We’ve graduated over half our team in the past; anywhere from six to 12 wrestlers a season and we’re graduating 10 this year. So we’ll see. We’ll see what kind of kids we get here and sort of start all over again. But we have five or six guys so we have about a half of a lineup already. We’re definitely going to give it our best like we always do.”
In Class AA/A, Aynor’s Dylan Andrew (106 pounds) was runner-up.
This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 11:31 PM with the headline "St. James’ Mewhorter claims state wrestling individual title."