Loris will have to wait for Hardware- Again
February 28, 2000
The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Author: Melinda Waldrop, THE SUN NEWS
Next year, Mike Morris wants a title and a trophy.
For the second consecutive year, Morris' Loris wrestling team won the state Class AA-A wrestling championship, but got no hardware to show for it.
The Lions tied Crescent with 83 points to share the Class AA-A title in Saturday's state meet at Furman University in Greenville, but had to flip a coin to determine which team got to take home the lone trophy. Morris picked tails, the coin came up heads, and Loris will have to wait two weeks for a second trophy to be crafted and delivered.
"Tails just popped in my mind," Morris said.
While Loris earned a share of the state title, Myrtle Beach's Jason Capp suffered his lone loss of the season at the worst possible time. Capp lost to Andy Owens by technical fall (19-3) in the Class AAA finals at 160 pounds to end his hopes of an undefeated season and a state title.
Myrtle Beach coach Charlie Clay said Capp wrestled in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Saturday, then hung around watching matches until the championship match at 6 p.m.
"He was just real tired when he got out there," Clay said. "He had nothing. It was the worst match he's wrestled during the year. The guy was very good, but (Capp) looked like he was in slow motion."
Clay said that, in retrospect, he would've gotten a hotel room in Greenville and sent Capp, a junior who finished the season 32-1, to get some sleep between matches.
"That doesn't take anything away from the season," Clay said. "He's an absolutely fantastic kid."
Among other area teams, Carolina Forest crowned a state champion when Zack Farley scored a pin at 215 pounds.
"He really dominated some of his opponents," Carolina Forest coach Britt McDowell said. "We were really pleased with what our wrestlers did. They worked incredibly hard. We just have to continue to improve."
Classes AAA and AAAA team titles were decided earlier in dual playoffs. There isn't a team competition in Class AA-A, so the title was based on individual points earned Saturday.
Last season, Loris left the state meet in Columbia thinking it had lost the title by half a point to Bishop England. Two days later, a scoring error was discovered that crowned the Lions state champs after all.
"It's crazy," Morris said. "... I guess that's just fate. (This year) is the first time it's ever been tied in I don't know how many years. We'll still take it. There's no doubt about that."
The Lions came within a point of earning the title outright when Darren Aiken dropped a 1-0 decision at 125 pounds.
"He shoulda beat the kid, but he didn't," Morris said. "There's a lot of matches like that, that are so close."
Loris was dealt a blow before wrestling began when Dan Phillips, the defending state champ at 140 pounds, was benched because of a school disciplinary problem.
Another defending state champion, Daryl Swinton, came up short in his repeat bid, settling for a third-place finish.
Chuck Hemingway, at 130 pounds, and Chris Gilchrist at 119 did claim state crowns - each winning by two points - for the Lions.
"To start with, they weren't quite as excited as I thought they would be, but after they were presented their medals and the (South Carolina) High School League gave them hats and T-shirts, they were happy," Morris said. "Even though Crescent got to take the trophy home, we got to have it for a minute and got pictures with it."