Jeff Linville | The News

North Surry’s Levi Goins nipped East Surry’s Cody Gaskell for the third time this season, winning 3-2.

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The North Surry wrestling team defeated East Surry by a score of 60-10 on Friday and improved their record to 27-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference.

The match began at the lowest weights, 106 and 113, with East Surry winning both. North’s Saige Wolf was pinned by East’s Eddie Nunez at 106.

Right behind that, East’s Timmy Norman won a major decision, 8-0, over Jacob Humphries. That gave East Surry a 10-0 lead, but the Hounds would win out the rest of the way.

North Coach Eric Jessup said the score did not reflect how close the matches really were between the two teams.

“I felt we came out on top in some close ones and we experienced a good night of wrestling overall,” Jessup said.

The night featured three powerhouse matchups: 145, 152 and 195 pounds.

At 145, East’s Jimmy Speer (17-4 coming in) faced Devyn Green (31-9). At 152, East’s Keanu Love (17-1) battled Austin Collins (33-2). And at 195, East’s Cody Gaskell (12-2) faced Levi Slate (36-4).

Speer was a champion at the Blackhawk Invitational in November, while Green was named most outstanding wrestler at the Greyhound duals. Green edged Speer 4-3.

Coming into the match, Love’s only loss of the season was to 4A wrestler Bryant Halsch. However, Collins, ranked fourth in the state for 2A, squeezed out an 8-7 decision.

Gaskell finished third in the state for 1A last year and is currently ranked first in 1A with only two losses all season. However, both of those came to Slate; the first was a 3-2 decision, the second 9-7.

This one also came down to the wire with Slate prevailing 3-2.

“They were three great matches,” said East Coach Darrin Haywood. North’s wrestlers, he said, “they took advantage of a mistake here and there. The effort was there for all three of ours. We just came up a little on the short end.”

As for the two wins at the lowest weights, Haywood said, “Those two are getting better every match.”

Nunez missed some time earlier this season with the flu, but he has returned to go 9-1.

He is ranked fourth in the state for 1A with his only loss coming when he wrestled up at 113 and faced North Wilkes’ fourth-ranked Lucas Smoot.

Norman isn’t ranked yet at 113, but could be soon as he improved to 18-5. He has racked up six wins and six forfeit wins in the past month since losing to Southeast Guilford standout Jacob McNeil, who finished fourth in the state in the highly competitive 4A state tournament.

“We are going to have to count on those two sophomores to give points every night out,” East’s coach said.

In other matches, North’s Austin McMillan (120) pinned Austin Bryant. At 126, North’s Tristen Brannock pinned Andrew Kozlow.

At 132, North’s Austin Rozier won a 4-0 minor decision over Eddie Scott. At 138, North’s Caleb Lowe pinned Eli Russell in 50 seconds.

North’s Austin McBride (160) pinned Travis Pugh. North’s Dalton Golden (170) earned a second-period pin on Gage Edwards.

East Surry didn’t have anyone at 182, so Corbin Bullins took the only forfeit on the night.

At 220, North’s Cody Slate pinned Jacob Chattin in the third period. At heavyweight, North’s Austin Akers pinned Joshua Stevens.

Jessup said overall he was pleased with how the Greyhound team wrestled on Friday.

“We wrestled against a well-coached East Surry team that performed some very good wrestling,” he said.

In the latest coaches’ poll on Retro Rankings, the Greyhounds (302 points) were ranked second in 2A behind only Croatan (354 points).

East Surry was ranked eighth in the 1A poll with 12 points. West Wilkes was second with 276 points.