LAURINBURG — Michael Locklear had to move quickly.
Scotland High’s 220-pound wrestler was in control of Pinecrest’s Luca Peck late in the second round of his bracket’s first-place match at the Sandhills Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday. Locklear had a small advantage on the scoreboard, but he saw a window of opportunity open up; with both wrestlers on the ground and just over 20 seconds left in the period, Locklear made a late push to roll Peck from his belly to his back and grab a pinfall victory.
“Oh, he’s rolling over. There’s no way he doesn’t,” Locklear said of his thought process in those final seconds. “He was already bent, so I just applied a little bit more pressure.”
That extra pressure was effective. Locklear pressed Pecks’ shoulders to the mat in enough time for a pin, and the sophomore claimed an individual conference title.
“I’ve been waiting on this for a long time,” Locklear said. “Last year I almost won, but I came up short in a couple rounds.
“It just feels nice to be back here and wrestle again.”
Locklear was away from the team for the fall semester, along with fellow heavyweight Nate Harrington, who grabbed a third-place finish in the 285-pound weight class.
“Mike had a lot of adversity in the first part of the semester,” Scotland coach Thomas Havener said. “It really killed him that he couldn’t wrestle with his team. He just started working. Mike is a great kid. Needs to work on his cardio a little bit, but Mike is going to be a good thing for Scotland wrestling the next couple years.”
In order to get to the championship match, Locklear pinned Lumberton’s Bryson Striblin in the quarterfinals. He then won a 7-5 decision over Devean Thaggard of Seventy-First in the semifinals.
Locklear and 195-pounder Devaun Hailey both advanced to the championship rounds in their respective brackets. Hailey finished as the runner-up in his weightclass. Hailey won a 6-4 decision over Pinecrest’s Cooper Bumgarner in the semifinals, and he was pinned by Seventy-First’s William Martinez in the championship bout.
“Devaun cut weight all the way down to 197,” Havener said. “He really showed something. Beat the top-ranked guy from Pinecrest.”
In the 170-pound class, Scotland’s Brendon Smith notched a third-place finish by defeating Demontrious Ratliff of Seventy-First, 8-7.
Also earning a podium finish was Zayden Christian in the 182-pound bracket. Christian grabbed a 4-3 decision over Jack Britt’s David Cruz in the consolation semifinals. In the third-place match, Lumberton’s Thomas Ratliff pinned Christian.
At 152 pounds, Mark Aiken notched a fourth-place finish for the Scots. He recovered from a semifinal loss with a major decision victory over Ethan Owens of Richmond in the consolation semifinals. Aiken’s run came to an end with a pinfall loss to Jackson Grider of Pinecrest in the third-place bout.
