From staff reports

Salisbury’s girls swim team placed fourth in the 1A/2A Central Regional held in Greensboro on Saturday.

Emily Knorr won the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle events.

Katie Knorr won the 100 backstroke and took second in the 200 IM.

Salisbury’s 200 medley relay team of the Knorr sisters, Anna Grace Woolly and Phoebe Hollingsworth placed second.

Salisbury’s 400 free relay team of the Knorrs, Hollingsworth and Sage Huffman took third place.

The Hornets will compete in the 1A/2A state meet in Cary on Feb. 6.

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Salisbury’s boys swim team also had several state qualifiers.

Roshen Amin was fifth in the regional in the 100 butterfly.

Gabe McLendon qualified in the 100 breaststroke.

SHS also qualified its 200 medley and 400 free relay teams. Those teams are Amin, McLendon, Merritt Mason and Jack Heilig.

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South Rowan’s Braxton Vagner finished second in the regional in the 100 breaststroke and seventh in the 200 IM.

South also qualified its 200 free relay team with a seventh-place finish.

HS wrestling

Statesville wrestlers  won the North Piedmont Conference Tournament on Saturday.

West Rowan was runner-up. Next were North Iredell, East Rowan, South Iredell and Carson.

West champions were Lane Adkins (138 pounds), Nathan Estrada (152), Seth Simmerson (170) and Baiden Suddarth (195).

East champions were Luke Heglar (106), Nate Burrage (120), Oren Bost (160) and Tayron Frost (182).

Carson’s Noah Basinger was champion at 132.

Bost was named Most Outstanding Wrestler. He bumped up a weight class and won against North Iredell standout Chandler Turner.

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Dual team state playoff pairings will be announced on Monday by the NCHSAA.

Statesville and West tied for first in the league. Statesville will get the best seed based on a head-to-head win against the Falcons.

  

LC men

SALISBURY — Livingstone had a tough shooting day and lost 71-68 to CIAA rival Winston-Salem State at New Trent Gym on Saturday.

Roger Ray made two free throws with seven seconds left to get the Blue Bears within three points. Then  WSSU left the door open by missing two free throws with five seconds left.

De’Marr McRae missed on a three-pointer for the Blue Bears at the end.

Ray only shot 7-for-25 but got to the foul line often  enough to score 30 points.

Jaylen Alston led the Rams with 16.

Livingstone trailed by 16 in the first half and by 13 at halftime.

Livingstone was down by 19 with 8:18 remaining

WSSU (71) — Alston 16, Hicklin 15, Caldwell 14, Harrell 8, Colon 6, Fenell 5,  Huntley 4,  Jackson 3.

LIVINGSTONE (68) — Ray 30, L. Elmore 9, N. Elmore 8, C. Carpenter 6, Handley 5, McRae 4, Tate 3, Fykes 2, Smith 1, Tiller, Lewis, B. Carpenter, Patterson, Parker, Dupree, Leach.

WSSU               36  35   — 71

Livingstone    23  45   — 68

Catawba women

WISE, Va. — Catawba’s women’s basketball team made a long trip, suffered a miserable shooting day at UVa-Wise and lost 65-54.

Catawba (16-3, 11-3)  shot 26.3 percent from the field in the South Atlantic Conference contest, went 3-for-23 on 3-pointers and missed 10 of 21 free throws.

UVa-Wise (10-10, 6-8)  had 14 blocked shots.

Catawba had big edges in the turnover battle (23-14) and offensive boards (28-13), but UVa-Wise shot the ball much better.

Catawba dug a 20-point hole in the second quarter, came all the way back to tie early in the fourth quarter, and then watched the home team pull away again in the final five minutes.

CATAWBA (54) — DeShazo 14, Wampler 8, McIntosh 8, Ford 7, Stanback 6, Garris 4, Thorne 4, Hallman 3, Downs, Sawyers, Bruce,  Gardner, Barnes, Tucker, Phillips.

UVA-WISE (65) — Vanzant 21, Ross 14, Stanley 8, Kestner 7, Johnson 6, Wood 6, Oliver 3.

Catawba   12   17  17   8   — 54

UVa-Wise  28  11   8    18  — 65

SAC women

McKenzie Gadson (Carson) made the game-winning 3-pointer as Anderson beat Carson-Newman 102-100 in two overtimes on Saturday.

Gadson made three 3-pointers and scored 14 points. Anderson moved into first place in the South Atlantic Conference.

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Bryanna Troutman (Salisbury) had seven points and five rebounds and helped Wingate beat Lenoir-Rhyne 54-44 on Saturday.

Catawba softball

SALISBURY — Catawba’s softball team opened the season with a doubleheader sweep of Augusta.

The Indians trailed in the opener 5-0 going to the bottom of the fifth but won 6-5 in eighth innings.

Gracie Gibson knocked in Sydney Goertzen with the winning run.

Jordan Dean drove in three runs. Kaylee Cook and Kayla Pederson had two hits each.

Madison Hunter (1-0) pitched four strong relief innings, striking out eight and allowing one hit.

• In the second game, Catawba romped 11-1 in five innings.

Goertzen went 3-for-3 with two RBIs. Allie Baker homered and drove in three runs. Riley Tucker went 2-for-2.

Preston Ellenberg (1-0) struck out six in four innings.

Catawba baseball

TAMPA — Catawba’s fifth-ranked baseball team fell to 0-2 with a 6-2 loss to Columbus State on Saturday.

Bryan Ketchie (0-1) pitched into the seventh inning but took the loss. Jackson Raper and Bryce Butler had two hits each. Joe Butts homered.

• Catawba lost to Barton 1-0 on Friday despite strong pitching by Greg Brown and DJ Laxton.

College wrestling

Brandon Sloop (Carson) helped UNC Pembroke win the  Mountain East Conference Championship on Saturday at West Liberty.

Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart’s JV girls won 23-19 against Blessed Sacrament School.

Jasmine Garcia scored 13, and Jiselle Garcia had six.

• Sacred Heart’s JV girls lost 21-11 to  Our Lady of Mercy. Jasmine Garcia led with seven points.

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Sacred Heart’s JV boys  team  won 33-21 against against Blessed  Sacrament.

Kevin Bonilla had 11 points, and Will Walters scored seven.

• In an 18-17 win against Our Lady of Mercy, Bonilla led with 10 points.

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Sacred Heart’s varsity girls lost 51-10 to Blessed Sacrament.  Angie Landaverde led with seven points.

• Landaverde scored seven in a 28-14 loss to Our Lady of Mercy.

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  Sacred Heart’s varsity boys defeated Blessed Sacrament 54-51. Nick Loeblein scored 32 points. Kaiden Dulkoski had seven, and James Holland scored six.

• In a 56-29 loss to Our Lady of Mercy. Loeblein scored 14, and Dulkoski had 10. Braulio Mercado had eight rebounds.