Two Hornets make podium at state wrestling championships

Kyle Dawson, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Feb. 26—Aiken High's Jayden Fuller and Triston Williams battled through the consolation brackets to each bring home third-place finishes Saturday in the Class AAAA wrestling individual state championships.

Fuller and Williams were the top finishers among 16 local wrestlers who qualified for this weekend's state championships, held at the Anderson Sports & Entertainment Center.

Williams, who repeated as the Lower State's heavyweight champion, lost a 4-3 decision to Laurens' Kole Lawson in the second round to drop into the consolation bracket. From there, he won a 9-5 decision over Indian Land's Malachi Jefferson before winning a 9-2 decision over Midland Valley's John Burke in the third-place match. It's the second year in a row that Williams has finished third and Burke fourth at state. Burke made it to that point with a pair of pins against York's Joseph Hall and Myrtle Beach's Mac Walters.

Fuller lost a 10-9 decision in his first match and then stormed back to win three straight, all by decision. He won 8-6 over Travelers Rest's Jacob Tankersley, 8-6 over Westside's AJ Williams and finally 11-8 over South Florence's Franklin Rivero.

Three more area wrestlers — South Aiken's Carson Sessoms (126 pounds), North Augusta's David Havasy (182) and Midland Valley's Burke (285) — reached consolation finals and finished fourth.

Sessoms, the Lower State champion in his weight class, fell in his opening match but won a majority decision 11-3 over Hartsville's Zach Lynch and pinned Airport's Robert Plantz to make the consolation final.

Havasy won his opening match over Lugoff-Elgin's Ethan Korn before falling into the consolation bracket, where he won his semifinal by an 11-4 decision over May River's Chris Snowden.

Other area wrestlers to advance to consolation semifinals were South Aiken's Hunter Faulkner (132), South Aiken's Ian Shaffer (138), South Aiken's Cayden Hart (145) and North Augusta's Jack Johnson (152).

The remaining area state qualifiers in Class AAAA were Midland Valley's Kareem Nelson (106), Aiken's Fabian Johnson (160), Aiken's Jonathan Mangione (170), Aiken's Will Brinkley (182) and South Aiken's Walker Griswold (195). Advancing to the Class A-AA championships were Wagener-Salley's Trevor Hair (106) and Byron Murray (120).