Seaforth continued its undefeated campaign on senior night, beating Chatham Central, 81-0, and Jordan-Matthews, 83-0, in its own tri-meet Wednesday.
Not only did the Hawks have a perfect night, they also dominated nearly every individual match. All of their matches were decided by pins, except for a technical fall, a regular decision and a few forfeits from their opponents.
As of Dec. 6, seven of Seaforth’s 14 wins have been decided by at least 60 points.
“We have special kids,” Seaforth head coach Ryan Armstrong said. “Most of these kids have been wrestling since fifth grade together. Some of these kids have been with us since their freshman year.”
Three Seaforth seniors, Josh Miller, Noah Wight and Ethan Budlong, were honored before the Hawks’ first dual of the night. They are the program’s first senior class.
Outside of having a talented team that has bonded over the years, Armstrong credited his team’s success this season to his coaching staff.
Assistant coach Peter Rogers has brought high-level college experience to the team after wrestling at Ohio State and coaching at Purdue. With more wrestlers on the team this year, the Hawks also added assistants Scott Tracy and Jason Dodd.
“Coaching staff is synced,” Armstrong said. “We got one mission which is to win a dual and individual state championship. All these boys’ goal sheets say they know what the goal is. The get in there every day, and they go after it.”
For Jordan-Matthews, Wednesday turned out to be a big night for its first-year head coach, Jimmie Long, who got his first ever win as a wrestling head coach.
The Jets won over Chatham Central, 42-30, for its first dual win of the season.
“It feels good,” Long said. “These boys have been working very hard. They’re very deserving of their first dual meet win.”
Long, an Eastern Randolph alum, won the NCHSAA 3A individual state title for the 112-pound weight class in 2003. After graduating, he spent one season as a volunteer coach at his alma mater before joining the United States Marine Corps from 2005 to 2015.
It hasn’t been easy for Long and the Jets this year with multiple freshman and first-ever wrestlers on the keter. They’ve had some individual success, but as a team, they hadn’t been able to put together enough solid matches to win some of their closer competitions.
“(They’re) very young,” Long said. “It’s very challenging, but it’s all worth it.”
After getting the job done, the task for Jordan-Matthews now is just to continue to learn and build.