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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

In the first matches of the season on Nov. 18, South Davie coach Russell Hilton carried 15 sixth graders and a ton of first-year wrestlers to West Rowan for a tri-meet.
The 1-1 results showed the Tigers aren’t half-bad. They will be better than OK when they gain some experience and get the lineup ironed out.
“We are really young,” the fifth-year coach said. “Half the team is sixth graders and most of my kids have never wrestled before. Half of them aren’t in the right weight class yet.”
The Tigers had an 84-point explosion right out of the gate, beating West Iredell 84-18. Hilton got 12 pins from David Hutchens (83), Leighton Reavis (90), Zion Lyons (98), Aidan Szewczyk (106), Memphis Nunn (120), Laz Smith (126), Jamarious Pelote (145), Isaiah Leonard (152), Isaac Lawson (160), Maddox Creason (170), Kaden Sagendorf (220) and Jakob Alexander (heavyweight). They won two matches by forfeit.
In the next match, West Rowan was a completely different animal. Hutchens, Szewczyk, Smith, Pelote and Alexander had the only wins – all by pin – as South fell 72-30.
Hilton, though, did not walk away discouraged.
“They’re going to be pretty tough,” he said. “Once they get a few matches under their belt, there’s a lot of potential, even for this year. This was West Rowan’s eighth match and our second.”
Hutchens, Szewczyk, Smith, Pelote and Alexander all had inspiring two-pin days.
“We’ve got some tough kids,” Hilton said.
Szewczyk – the brother of Adam, who is a freshman wrestler at Lincoln Memorial University – is a ferocious seventh grader.
“Aidan is the real deal,” Hilton said. “That kid is an absolute monster, and he’s only a seventh grader. He is technical and he’s got that killer mentality. He doesn’t just want to beat you; he wants to hurt your pride, too.”
Hutchens’ showing was all the better when you consider he’s a sixth grader.
“David was nervous before the match, and he went out there and pinned two kids in the first period,” Hilton said.
Perhaps the most exciting win was Pelote’s high-scoring affair against West Rowan. He was leading 17-14 before pinning the Falcon late in the third.
“Jamarious finally took him down and pinned him with eight seconds left,” he said. “It was a very physical match. That was two big, strong kids wrestling each other.”