The future of the Holly Springs wrestling program was on display at the Catamount Duals this past Saturday, hosted by Panther Creek HS. Eight teams of first and second-year wrestlers squared off. Holly Springs first drew a talented Wake-Forest Rolesville squad and set the tone early, jumping out to a 19-3 lead off wins by Eric Bradley, Elijah Reteguiz, Vincent Faulk, and Nick Wiltrout. WFR stormed back through the upper and early lower weights to pull within four with one bout remaining. Holly Springs’ Micah Drengler put an end to the comeback and secured a 37-27 Hawk dual team victory with 1st period pin at 130 lbs. Holly Springs won 10 of 14 bouts and easily dispatched a Knightdale squad 47-24.

Against host Panther Creek, the Hawks got on the board early with a third period pin from freshman Kael Kilpatrick at 152 lbs. The teams traded victories back and forth and following a win by the Hawks’ Mike Hudson at 125 lbs, Holly Springs led 28-23 with four bouts remaining. That would be as close at Panther Creek would get as bonus point wins by Nate Trumbo (130 lbs.), Zack Turner (135 lbs.), and John Kelly (140 lbs.) fueled Holly Springs to the 44-26 victory. The Hawks only won one more individual bout than did Panther Creek, but were able to stay off their backs and put the Catamounts to theirs’, accruing the bonus points that proved to be the difference.

The competition only got better as a strong Athens Drive squad jumped out to a commanding 24-6 lead. Holly Springs would roar back through the light and middle-weights off of key victories by Aaron Redus (103 lbs.), Ryan Fawcett (112 lbs.), Drengler (130 lbs.), Bradley (135 lbs.), Kelly (140), Faulk (145 lbs.), and Joey Matthews (152 lbs.) to take the victory 46-33. In the finals, Holly Springs would face off with the Green Hope Falcons, also undefeated in team competition on the day. When the dust settled, each team had seven individual bout victories. The Falcons however, got pins in six of those as several Hawks failed to fight off their backs in the 39-31 Green Hope victory. The Hawks’ Hoa Tran, Ryan Fawcett, Micah Drengler, Nate Trumbo, Zack Turner, John Kelly and Vincent Faulk each went undefeated on the day.

The varsity team will travel to Fayetteville Saturday, Jan. 29 to participate amongst a strong field at the Dirty Byrd Classic, hosted by Douglas Byrd High School.