The Panther wrestling season ended with a National Champion, four All-Americans, and a 6th-place overall team showing.
The Panthers competed last Thursday-Saturday, at the Brookshire Grocery Arena in Louisiana.
First-year Ezekiel Kneel won the 125 lbs National Championship for the Panthers, going 6-0 with a pair of pins, a tech fall, and three decisions. In the finals, he beat Lucas Van Nostrand from the Apprentice School by a score of 14-13.
Ferrum also recorded four All-Americans, sophomore Cameron Curva (149) placed 5th, first-year Hayden Thompson (149) placed 7th, sophomore Andres Cortes (157) placed 6th, senior Braeden Fluke (285) placed 7th.
Curva went 6-2 with a pin, a tech fall and a major decision. Thompson went 5-2 with three pins. Cortes went 5-3 with a pin and a tech fall, and Fluke went 5-2 with five pins.
Nine Panthers also competed at Nationals, those being, sophomore Josiah Canales Maldonado (133), first-year Braden Crawford (141), sophomore Blake McCarty (157), sophomore Robert Owens Jr. (165), senior Hunter Thompson (174), junior Joseph Toner (184), sophomore Grayson Ringwald (184), senior Noah Harris (197), and junior Franklin Melton (235).
Overall, Ferrum qualified 14 wrestlers for NCWA Nationals. The team finished with an 8-8 overall duo meet, and a 3-7 mark in the Conference Carolinas.
