Hillcrest dealt stunning loss in Class AAAAA wrestling state championship match
The Greenville News (Greenville, SC)
February 13, 2022
Author: Sam Albuquerque, Staff Writer
Ashley Ridge High School wins the AAAAA team wrestling state championship.
It came down to the final match of the final dual of the season for the Class AAAAA team wrestling state championship to be decided Saturday at Dreher High.
After a back-and- forth start, Hillcrest High built a 26-15 lead with only three matches remaining. But Ashley Ridge wasn't ready to go gently into the night.
Despite the deficit and with the emotional help of their raucous crowd, won the three remaining matches to topple the three-time defending state champion Rams, 27-26.
Hillcrest had seemed a prohibitive favorite to in the final. The Rams rolled through the Upper State, beating Clover 50-18 in the semifinals and Byrnes 53-15 in the quarterfinals. The Swamp Foxes had to squeak by opponents in the Lower State, beating Summerville in the semifinals 34-24 and Lexington in their building 40-26 in the quarterfinals and just barely getting by Carolina Forest 35-30 in the second round.
"Hillcrest is amazing. They're always winning state titles. They're always battling for them. Like I just told their coach, we were just happy to have an opportunity to compete against them," said Ashley Ridge wrestling coach Stacey Woods, "We were just hoping we competed tough. Whether we won or lost, we wanted to have walked out of here with our heads high, but our guys fought, and they wanted to finish as the state champions and that's what we did."
But the Rams won't allow this loss to define their season, Hillcrest wrestling coach, Anthony Esposito posted this to his Twitter account following the defeat.
Esposito has continued the successful legacy of wrestling at Hillcrest and despite this loss, looks to be building a program that will add even more hardware the already stocked shelves of the school trophy cabinets.
As for the Swamp Foxes, they'll enjoy their reign as the new kings of South Carolina wrestling.
"We've been battle-tested," Wood said. "Our guys fought, they were resilient and that's how they finished today. Just nothing but the utmost pride and happiness for these guys, the team, and for Ashley Ridge."