Pictured right to left are Mount Airy senior wrestlers and their families Grady France and Zane Valentine, Zaquan Dobson and Gloria France, Mason Timmerman and Sonja Mabry and Kolte Poore and Velvet Shelton Cowan.

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The Mount Airy Bears beat South Stokes on the mat at home and qualified the team for the State Duals Tournament to be held next Tuesday.

The final wrestling match total ended with the Bears on top 37-36. Tiebreaker criteria was used to determine the score after the match ended with a score of 36-36. Bear’s Coach Steve Braune said the criteria was based on “most points scored.”

Braune said this will be the first time since 2002 that the team has advanced to the State Dual Tournament. The opponent and location is yet to be determined, he said.

Braune said there were two wrestling matches against the Sauras that he called “the matches of the night.”

The coach said Triston Mabry won a minor decision by a score of 9-2 in the last match of the night in order to secure the tie score of 36-36.

Braune said, “I told him what he needed to do and he did it. I told him he need to score first and win and he did.”

Braune said freshman Cameron Pack’s performance also made a difference in the Bear’s strategic win. Though Pack lost, it was only a minor decision against one of South’s best wrestlers, said Braune. The Bear’s coach said the match went the whole six minutes.

“Pack wrestled his heart out,” said Braune.

The Bears coach said some weights were bumped around against South Stokes for strategic purposes.

The match opened with the 152 weight class.

At 152, MA Andrew Moore won 12-5 against SS Matt Poss. At 160, MA Austin Branch got pinned by SS TJ Whaley. At 170, MA Dallas Smith won by a pin over SS Shane O’Donnell. At 182, MA Landon Mumford got pinned by SS Christian Artis. MA Nick Kendall got pinned by SS Corbin Tackett at 195. MA Mason Timmerman got pinned by SS Evan Scott at 220. MA Isaiah King pinned SS Ben Tuttle at 285.

Next, at 106 MA Alex Howard accepted a forfeit. Also at 113, MA Daniel Sechrist accepted a forfeit. At 120, MA Jackson Blizzard lost 4-3 in a minor decision to SS John Kevin Fischer. At 126, SS Dre Bonner received a forfeit because Tyler Duty was out sick. At 132, MA Cameron Pack lost a minor decision 3-0 to SS Morgan Bagley. At 138, MA Shay Wilson accepted a forfeit.