SCMAT Exclusive Wrestling Article 2-12-08

Dalton Harper of Chesterfield
breaks all time South Carolina
career victory mark with his 
211th win in 1A Dual Finals!
Dalton 1.jpg Dalton Harper delivers a crowd pleasing big-time toss enroute to career win #211 Dalton 2.jpg Chesterfield's Dalton Harper receives congratulations from his teammates during his 211th victory line! For the third year in a row the State record for all time career wins will change hands. Dalton Harper of Chesterfield surpassed the mark, set last year by J.C. Oddo of Eastside (of 210 wins), during the 1A State Dual Finals on Saturday, February 9th. In 2006, Matt Leach of Eastside had set the previous mark at 199 wins. T.T. Prayther of North Myrtle Beach and Trey Alley of Chesterfield should both surpass 200 career wins this year, putting 4 wrestlers in the 200+ club. Dalton will stand tall at the top of the All Time Win list at least for a year but it appears that Eric Rholetter of West-Oak is on pace to break that record in 2009 and Ian Harper of Chesterfield is on pace to shatter the record book in 2010. Dalton has had a fabulous career with three State titles and a career record of 211-6 (so far). A break down of his year by year Stats go like this --- 2005 - Freshman season - 46-0 112 lbs. - Dalton Harper would pin Ben Gossett of Broome (a Freshman) in the 2A-1A State Finals. 2006 - Sophomore season - 46-3 125 lbs. - Dalton Harper would win a 17-4 contest with Will Miller of West-Oak (a Senior) in the 2A-1A State Finals. 2007 - Junior season - 58-2 130 lbs. - Dalton Harper would win a 18-7 contest with Stephen Madden of Crescent (a Freshman) in the 2A-1A State Finals. 2008 - Senior season - 61-1 140 lbs. - Dalton has been ranked #1 all season long and his lone loss was out of state The videos below were compiled by Dallas Watson of Chesterfield, Dalton's half brother, who was a 2000 State Runner-up. Dallas continues to be involved with the Chesterfield program and assists with coaching. Sophomore year - wrestling highlights of Dalton Harper Junior year - wrestling highlights of Dalton Harper And, if you missed a recent article we linked to under our News section, check out The Cheraw Chronicle's coverage as the Ram wrestlers chase historical milestones It was great to see Dalton's plans for wrestling at Anderson University this Fall. Hopefully after the State Finals, in two weeks, we will see more victories at the North-South All-Star match and possibly at High School Senior Nationals. Congratualtions to Dalton Harper for setting the new State record for career wins!!!