Youth Sync Northwest wrestling team captures state championship

by CHRIS BURRITT

NW GREENSBORO – For the second time since 2019, Northwest Guilford High School’s wrestling team has won the NCHSAA 4-A state dual team wrestling championship.

The 52-24 victory over Wilmington’s Laney High School earlier this month represented revenge for the Vikings, who lost the state championship to Laney by a single point last year. Northwest’s victory over Laney in 2019 marked the school’s first state wrestling championship.

Northwest got off to a fast start in the Feb. 4 matchup against Laney High, winning by pin in five of the first six matches and adding a bonus point win by major decision in the other match.

According to NCHSAA’s website, Nick Byrd led off the match with a huge win for Northwest in the heavyweight division over Michael Williams, stapling Williams to the mat just 55 seconds into the dual match. Byrd was selected as the 4A Most Valuable Performer for his leadoff win.

Despite this year’s wider margin of victory, Vikings coach Ron Bare said, “I wouldn’t put anything under the easy category in the state tournament.

We got out to a good lead and had a lot of momentum.”

Ten seniors led this year’s team, including Drew Pepin, who has signed to wrestle for the Gardner-Webb University Runnin’ Bulldogs in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

Back in 2019, most of the seniors were in eighth grade as they watched the Vikings’ narrow loss to Laney. Since then, they’ve attended summer camps and trained hard during the season, according to Bare.

“We have high expectations for our wrestlers,” the 59-yearold coach said in an interview last week.

Bare has coached Northwest Guilford’s wrestling team since 1989, the first seven years as the assistant coach.

“We’re going to challenge ourselves,” he said. “We’re going to wrestle the best competition that we can. The kids buy into the program.”

Replacing the 10 seniors – representing 10 of the 14 weight classes –“is not an easy thing to do,” Bare said. “But we feel comfortable with the guys we’ve got coming back. There will be a learning curve, but we’ll be OK. We have a lot of good older kids.”