Three-peat! Fort Mill holds off Lugoff-Elgin to extend wrestling title streak
After ending the state’s longest-running championship earlier this week, Fort Mill wrestling extended its own Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets defeated Lugoff-Elgin 33-28, to win the South Carolina Class 5A Division II championship on Saturday at Dreher High School.
It was Fort Mill’s third straight title. The Yellow Jackets ended Eastside’s title reign Wednesday with a 34-33 win to advance to the championship.
The match was decided in a tiebreaker with Fort Mill winning the most matches by pins. Eastside was going for its 10th straight state championship.
“It feels awesome,” Fort Mill coach Adam Marullo said. “I am a very lucky guy and I have great kids that I coach and great staff. I’m very excited about running back for No. 4.”
Fort Mill defeated Lugoff-Elgin, 56-12, earlier this season but Marullo said Lugoff-Elgin created some problems by moving guys around in its order to give them problems.
But Fort Mill rallied in a pair of individual matches on its way to the third title Saturday.
Tucker Gibson rallied from 8-6 down in his 126-pound match to win 9-8 and give Fort Mill a 22-7 lead.
But the Demons hung tough and cut the lead to 30-19 following Gabe Rush’s pin at 150 pounds with three matches left.
It looked like Lugoff-Elgin would get even closer as Rivers Moak led his 157-bound match at 14-2 before Vincent Damico rallied to win 15-14 and clinch the title.
“Vincent’s been a backup guy all year but he was ready to perform and all these guys are ready to perform. My assistant coaches get these guys ready to compete,” Marullo said. “ … And Vincent stepped up and did his job.”
It was the third straight title loss for Lugoff-Elgin, which lost to Eastside the two previous years. The Demons have five five titles in program history but none since 2010.
“We put together a really good game plan. We just came up a little bit short,” L-E coach Ted Monroe said. “It had nothing to do with our effort but they are really, really good.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2025 at 8:38 PM.
