SCMAT Exclusive Wrestling Article 12-30-24
Top 10 SC Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
Decade 3 - 1990-1999
Rock Hill wrestling
SCMAT continues our Exclusive series covering the Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time.
Unique aspects of this Decade - 1990-1999
4A added State Duals in 1993. 3A added State Duals in 1994. 2A-1A added State Duals in the next decade, in 2001.
This shift meant team champions would be determined through State Duals instead of Traditional state (team points at State Individuals).
The dilemma was "when" would State Duals get into the perfect spot of the February calendar? It was trial and error the first decade, taking three attempts. In 1993, State Duals were squeezed between Upper/Lower State Individuals and State Individuals. This was not ideal, so State Duals moved on the SCHSL calendar to be the last wrestling tournament of the season (hence it was after State Individuals). This schedule stayed in place from 1994-1998. This calendar spot also became challenging from a "team standpoint", so in 1999 State Duals moved to early February before Upper/Lower State Individuals and this has been the schedule for 25 years.
For the second decade in a row, 4A only had two team champions - Rock Hill and Summerville. Between 1980-1999, Rock Hill had 14 titles and Summerville had 6 titles.
Coach Steve LaPrad (Summerville) retired as head wrestling coach in 1993 after winning the debut of 4A State Duals. Coach Mike Frye coached Summerville for 4 years before Coach Kenny Walker became the head coach at Summerville.
In 3A, 2A-1A - Coach Nathan Day (Battery Creek), Coach Tim Wash (Lugoff-Elgin) and Coach Bob Taylor (Chapin) would build unstoppable teams. Swansea would win three times in the decade with Coach Qunicy Riley winning two of the titles.
Day (Goose Creek), Wash (Fort Johnson) and Riley (Airport) all grew up wrestling in SC (high school alma maters in parentheses) and combined to coach 9 team state champions in this decade.
As the shift to State Duals occurred, teams increased their competitive Duals schedule and not as many Team State Champions had undefeated dual records. See stats below:
In the first decade (1969-1979), 53% of team state champions were undefeated in duals (8 out of the 15 teams)
In the second decade (1980-1989), 50% of team state champions were undefeated in duals (11 out of the 22 teams)
In the third decade (1990-1999), 21% of team state champions were undefeated in duals (6 out of the 28 teams)
Finally, the NHSCA Senior Nationals launched at the beginning of this decade and thirteen South Carolina senior wrestlers achieved All-American status in this decade.
1999 103 8th Berry Carlton (Greer)
1999 275 4th C.J. Frye (Irmo)
1998 119 8th Travis Drake (Cheraw)
1996 152 8th Dennis Mitchell (Conway)
1996 275 2nd Nick DiBenedetto (Rock Hill)
1994 103 5th Clay Cavanaugh (Lexington)
1994 275 3rd Shelton Benjamin (Orangeburg-Wilkinson)
1993 145 8th Charles Barton (Beaufort)
1993 160 8th Brian Collier (Summerville)
1991 145 1st Lamar Thompson (Rock Hill) - National Champion
1991 189 5th Damon Poage (Rock Hill)
1990 103 3rd Harris Lawton (Beaufort)
1990 145 2nd Dan Wirnsberger (Greer)
Let's take a look at this decade of SC high school wrestling
Decade 3 - 1990-1999 - State Champions
NOTE - in the comparison grid we add a new column for "Dual" or "Trad" (for Traditional) as the path to the State Championship.
If you are reading this article from your cell phone (mobile), you may find the team comparison grid below will be better to read turning your phone sideways to wide format.
Trad Trad Year Class State Champion Title Coach Record Place Pts. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Placers ---- ---- -------------- ----- --------------- ------ ----- --- --- --- --- --- ----
1999 4A Rock Hill Dual Jim Barnes 21-0 1st 136.5 5 0 1 1 7 recap
1999 3A Lugoff-Elgin Dual Tim Wash 15-4 1st 128.5 3 3 1 0 7 recap
1999 2A-1A Loris Trad Michael Morris 13-5-1 1st 91.5 2 1 3 0 6 recap
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1998 4A Summerville Dual Kenny Walker 14-2 ??? 1 0 1 2 4 recap
1998 3A Lugoff-Elgin Dual Tim Wash 21-2 1st 4 2 2 1 9 recap
1998 2A-1A Chapin Trad Bob Taylor 15-4 1st 153.5 3 5 0 1 9 recap
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1997 4A Rock Hill Dual Jim Barnes 18-0 1st 3 1 2 1 7 recap
1997 3A Lugoff-Elgin Dual Tim Wash 27-1 1st 2 4 4 2 12 recap
1997 2A-1A Chapin Trad Bob Taylor 15-4 1st 105.5 2 3 0 2 7 recap
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1996 4A Rock Hill Dual Jim Barnes 21-0 1st 151.5 5 1 2 0 8 recap
1996 3A Battery Creek Dual Nathan Day 22-1 1st 5 2 0 1 8 recap
1996 2A-1A Chapin Trad Bob Taylor 12-4 1st 104.5 3 0 2 1 6 recap
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1995 4A Rock Hill Dual Jim Barnes 17-0 1st 147.5 4 3 0 2 9 recap
1995 3A Battery Creek Dual Nathan Day 25-1 ??? 2 2 3 0 7 recap
1995 2A-1A Swansea Trad Quincy Riley 1st 117.0 4 1 2 0 7 recap
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1994 4A Rock Hill Dual Jim Barnes 18-3 ??? 3 3 0 3 9 recap
1994 3A Battery Creek Dual Nathan Day 17-2 2nd 97.0 3 1 2 1 7 recap
1994 2A-1A West-Oak Trad Glenn Muncy 1st 129.5 2 4 0 1 7 recap
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1993 4A Summerville Dual Steve LaPrad 15-0 ??? 3 2 3 1 9 recap
1993 3A James Island Trad Nelson Huggins 18-5 1st 119.0 3 1 2 1 7 recap
1993 2A-1A Chapin Trad Bob Taylor 1st 132.0 3 2 1 2 8 recap
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1992 4A Summerville Trad Steve LaPrad ?-1 1st 123.5 2 2 3 1 8 recap
1992 3A Belton-Honea Path Trad John Abercrombie 15-1 1st 130.5 2 3 3 1 9 recap
1992 2A-1A Swansea Trad Quincy Riley 4-15 1st 143.5 4 2 1 0 7 recap
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1991 4A Rock Hill Trad Jim Barnes 7-2 1st 124.0 5 1 0 0 6 recap
1991 3A-2A-1A Battery Creek Trad Nathan Day 14-2 1st 98.0 4 1 0 0 5 recap
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1990 4A Rock Hill Trad Jim Barnes 11-0 1st 176.5 6 3 1 0 10 recap
1990 3A-2A-1A Swansea Trad Jeff Slagle 1st 114.5 3 2 1 1 7 recap
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Analysis of the Decade - 1990-1999
3A-2A-1A was still combined for their State Tournament to start the decade. Beginning in 1992, S.C. held three state tournaments the rest of the decade - 4A, 3A and 2A-1A.
In 4A, the rivalry between Summerville and Rock Hill continued South Carolina's presence in national Top 20 wrestling rankings in Amatuer Wrestling News (AWN).
Rock Hill wrestled a consistent tough out-of-state schedule - going to VA, OH, PA and NC during the decade.
In-state, the Battery Creek Duals (led by Coach Nathan Day) would become the toughest premier Duals tournament in SC during the season.
Rock Hill and Summerville met up on 1-25-92 for an all-time classic at the Battery Creek Duals, with Rock Hill winning 29-28 on criteria. Summerville would win the 4A State Title four weeks later in 1992 with the most team points at Traditional State.
In 3A, Coach Nathan Day (Battery Creek) had become one of the best match-up strategists with his lineup shifts and crafty coaching savvy. Battery Creek developed a wrestling fanbase that created noise well above 100 decibels. As James Island coach Martin Williams would once say during their heated rivalries, "Nathan Day has an army down there!"
Also in 3A, Lugoff-Elgin rose to dominance during the decade and in 1997 Lugoff-Elgin established a 3A record that still stands today, with 12 State Individual Placers.
2A-1A would have highly competitive State Tournaments with Chapin, Swansea, West-Oak and Loris winning state titles in 2A-1A.
Several great SCMAT Exclusives from 4 years ago are shared below, covering 1999 in 2A-1A. Bishop England was in the mix continuously, coached by upcoming 2025 NWHOF Inductee Coach Paul Spence.
SCMAT Exclusive - Part 1, 1999 2A-1A Wrestling State Tournament
SCMAT Exclusive - Part 2, 1999 2A-1A Wrestling State Tournament
In this first decade of State Duals, the State Duals winner was usually also scoring the most team points at Traditional State ... though that trend would change in later decades. It would become more difficult for teams to win State Duals and score the most team points at Traditional State.
The following views may prompt a few emails, and SCMAT is fine with hearing from coaches and fans on these topics.
After State Duals started, the S.C. Wrestling Coaches Association (SCWCA) initially hoped to award a Traditional Team Champion (from the SCWCA), though there was concern, tension and oversight from the S.C. High School League (SCHSL) to ensure only one team state champion was recognized - and that would be through State Duals.
This meant that the State Individual Tournament and Upper/Lower State Tournaments would often not post team scores and placements in the early years of State Duals, as a way to maintain peace and collaboration with the SCHSL.
Newspapers rarely were able to aquire team scores when covering the Traditional State Tournament.
Luckily being on a coaching staff the entire decade, as well as launching SCMAT in the decade ... it was always an option to help run the state tournament computer or ask and acquire team points.
Unfortunately, we still have some missing team points and team placements at Traditional State in our comparison grid above.
SCMAT continues working on bracket re-creations and obtaining team points, as we continue compiling the early history of SC wrestling.
State Individual Tournament Brackets from this Decade - 1990-1999
If anyone has missing/updated bracket information from 1990 3A-2A-1A please send an email to scmat@hotmail.com
All State Individual Tournament Brackets for this decade are at SCMAT, except this one:
1990 3A-2A-1A State Individuals - SCMAT seeking brackets
Decade considerations for Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
SCMAT definitely considers a number of teams in this decade as Top 10 considerations.
National Wrestling Hall of Fame (NWHOF) Inductees from the SC Chapter noted below (for NWHOF members on the teams being considered).
Coaches and fans will need to weight in on the peak year for each of these teams:
Rock Hill - 7 state titles - NWHOF Inductee Coach Jim Barnes.
Battery Creek - 4 state titles - NWHOF Inductee Coach Nathan Day.
Chapin - 4 state titles - Coach Bob Taylor.
Summerville - 3 state titles - NWHOF Inductee Coach Steve LaPrad and Coach Kenny Walker (1998).
Lugoff-Elgin - 3 state titles - NWHOF Inductee Coach Tim Wash, with the LE teams led by upcoming 2025 NWHOF Inductee Ben Connell.
Swansea - 3 state titles - Coach Jeff Slagle and NWHOF Inductee Coach Quincy Riley (1992, 1995).
Projected schedule for each decade in this Exclusive series:
December 2 - Decade 1 - 1969-1979 - Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
December 23 - Decade 2 - 1980-1989 - Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
December 30 - Decade 3 - 1990-1999 - Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
January 6 - Decade 4 - 2000-2009 - Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
January 20 - Decade 5 - 2010-2019 - Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
February 3 - Decade 6 - 2020-2024 - Top 10 S.C. Wrestling Seasons & Teams of All Time
If you notice any updates related to the State Champions above, please send an email to scmat@hotmail.com
thanks,
Mark Buford
Send any updates or feedback to scmat@hotmail.com
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