Staff report

MONROE — West Rowan’s girls wrestling team placed third in the NC Girls Dual Invite that was held on Saturday.

Schools were divided into “large” and small divisions, based on the NCHSAA’s ADM figures. West was in the smaller division and wrestled at Parkwood High in Monroe, while the larger schools wrestled at A.L. Brown.

These were essentially state championship tournaments, including the top teams from the mountains to the coast. There were representatives from 1A, 2A and 3A in the field at Parkwood. There were 15 schools in a 16-team bracket. Swain County was awarded the first-round bye.

It was a busy day for the Falcons, who wound up wrestling six matches. They were 5-1. Their only loss was to Havelock in a quarterfinal match, but the Falcons roared back through the consolation rounds, basically dual-team wrestle-backs, and beat Havelock in the match that decided third place.

Parkwood won the event, with Swain County finishing as runner-up.

West beat North Buncombe 54-18 in the first round. Hadley Perry, Olyvia Brown, Nevaeh McCullough and Brooks Zino had pins, and the Falcons collected five forfeits.

In a 46-24 loss to Havelock, Brown had a pin for the Falcons at 114 pounds. West’s other points came on forfeits.

West beat Robbinsville  53-18 as the Falcons started a march back through the consolations rounds. Brown and Lindsey Russell had pins, Katie O’Brien won by technical fall, and the Falcons claimed six forfeits.

Next, West won 53-18 against South Davidson.

The Falcons got pins from Perry, Waylon Collins, Riley Beam, McCullough, Faith Barton and Margaret Leach. O’Brien won by technical fall, and West accepted two forfeits.

West beat Dixon 41-30 in the next round. Dixon is a school near the coast, in the town of Holly Ridge.

Perry, Brown, O’Brien and Collins had pins. Zino won by tech fall, and the Falcons got 12 points on forfeits.

Then West won the rematch with Havelock 42-27.

Collins, McCullough, Zino and Leach had pins for West, and the Falcons had three wins by forfeit.

Zino and McCullough were pinned in the first match with Havelock, so they provided a big swing.

Brown, Perry, Collins and Leach provided 30 team points each via pins or forfeits. Alexus Pemental and McCullough had 24 each. Zino contributed 23, O’Brien 22 and Taylor Miller 18.

McCullough had the quickest pin in the tournament, winning in 5 seconds. She also had a win in 25 seconds.

Collins had a quick pin in 22 seconds.

The Falcons are coached by Tim Pangburn.