West Wilkes leads 1A state wrestling

West Wilkes leads the 1A wrestling state tournament after Friday’s quarterfinals. The Blackhawks had five winners in the quarterfinal round. East Surry and East Wilkes each had three wrestlers advance. Here are quarterfinal match results:

North Surry leads 2A wrestling after day 1

North Surry holds a three-point leader over Trinity and a seven-point lead over West Lincoln after the first day of the 2A state wrestling championships in Greensboro.

North Surry has three region wrestling champs

Wrestlers from North Surry, Surry Central and Ashe County flexed their muscles at the 2A Midwest individual championships, held Saturday at Piedmont High in Monroe. North Surry, which only lost twice during the dual-team season, put seven wrestlers into this coming weekend’s 2A state tournament. Three won region championships, which will bring top seeding for the state finale.

West Wilkes leads way in 1A West Region wrestling

West Wilkes’ state championship wrestling team enjoyed a dominating performance at Saturday’s 1A West individual regional tournament in Forest City. The Blackhawks, who won their third-consecutive 1A dual-team title the weekend prior, had five region champions out of 14 weight classes and one runner-up finisher.

Weekend in review: Links to top stories

It was a busy weekend of sports around the Yadkin Valley. The basketball regular season was coming to close, while wrestling, swimming and indoor track were crowning state champions. It’s tough to keep up sometimes, so here are links from various stories that ran here at YadkinValleySports.com over the weekend just in case you missed something.

STATE CHAMPS! West Wilkes pins 3rd title

An impressive season-long run by the Ayden-Grifton wrestling team was wrapped up quickly by West Wilkes on Saturday afternoon, but that did little to sour the remarkable progress of the Chargers in precious little time.

West Wilkes wrestles to 1A West title

West Wilkes High School’s wrestling team won its fourth consecutive 1A West Region dual-team championship Thursday night and now will get the chance to compete for its third straight state title.

West Wilkes advances, North Surry grounded

Only one area wrestling team survived the opening night of the state dual-team playoffs Tuesday. West Wilkes, the two-time reigning 1A state champions, advanced back to the 1A West Regional final with victories over Cherryville (58-24) and Robbinsville (47-27) in its home gym. The Blackhawks (20-1) will wrestle at Mitchell (31-3) on Thursday, with the winner traveling to either Dixon or Ayden-Grifton on Saturday to compete for the 2012 state crown.

West Wilkes hosting wrestling playoff Tuesday

West Wilkes will have home-mat advantage as it begins its defense of its Class 1A dual-team wrestling state championship Tuesday. The Blackhawks will be the host school for one of the four-team pods on the opening night of 1A dual-team action. West Wilkes (18-1) will wrestle Cherryville (10-19) in its first match at 6 p.m. Also, East Surry (15-13) will wrestle Robbinsville (23-5) in an opening round match at West Wilkes.

Statewide wrestling rankings: Feb. 1 edition

Retrorankings.com compiles statewide wrestling rankings each week. Here are the latest rankings for Class 1A and Class 2A. Wrestlers will compete in conference tournaments this weekend.

East Wilkes wrestler crosses the 100-win plateau

Zack Prevette set his goals high when joining East Wilkes wrestling program as a freshman. He wanted to be one of the elites in the county to win at least 100 matches. “That is pretty big in high school wrestling,” Cardinals coach Dan Prouty said. “It kind of signifies that you are a good wrestler.”

Alleghany Trojans rally around injured wrestler

The Alleghany High School community is rallying around a senior wrestler who suffered serious neck injuries in a tournament over the weekend. Luke Hampton, one of the state’s top wrestlers in his weight class at the 1A level, broke his neck during a match. He was airlifted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and likely is headed to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, a facility for medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord and brain injuries.

Preseason high school wrestling rankings

Here are preseason individual rankings for Class 1A and 2A wrestling, as published by www.RetroRankings.com. Wrestlers from Mountain Valley 1A/2A and Northwest 1A/2A schools are listed in bold. The number after the wrestler’s school indicates the grappler’s finish in past state championship events. HM = honorable mention. SQ = state qualifier.

Starmount’s Sloan wins first state wrestling duel

Austin Sloan’s quest for a perfect wrestling season and a 2A state championship got off to a winning start Thursday night

Foothills Fury wrestling club to meet Nov. 9

The Foothills Fury AAU Wrestling Club will hold an organizational meeting on Tuesday, November 9 at the Elkin Elementary School Gymnasium at 7 p.m.