Five Lowcountry wrestlers win championships at 2025 SC state tournament
It was a successful weekend for Lowcountry wrestlers at the SC High School League state championships.
Four boys and one girl won state championships at the event held at the Florence Center
It was the first year the championships were moved from Anderson to Florence. The championships also included girls on the same weekend as the boys for the second straight year.
Individual state champions on the boys side were May River’s Joshua Echeverria (175) and Blake Butler (150), Hilton Head Island’s Bryce Stephenson (113) and Bluffton’s Gabriel Fulton (165).
Bluffton’s Jada Lawrence won the state championship in the girls’ 145-pound division.
Echeverria, a senior, took home Most Outstanding Wrestler honors in winning his first state championship at 175 pounds. It took him just 48 seconds to pin Aiken’s Malik Mclaurin for the title.
Butler also won his first individual title by winning at the 150-pound class. He defeated Laurens’ Leyden Gentry by technical fall, 19-3. Both Echeverria and Butler were a part of the Sharks’ dual state championship winning team earlier this month.
Stephenson, who finished third last year at 106 pounds, defeated Southside’s Timothy Simmons, 11-8, for a win in the 113-pound class. It was his first state championship.
Fulton, a state qualifier, a year ago, defeated top-ranked John Grove of AC Flora, 4-2, for the title.
Beaufort’s Colton Freeman was a runner-up, finishing second in the 190-pound division. Freeman made it to the championship, losing in the final to Traveler’s Rest’s Mitchell Knepp.
May River had three third-place finishers — Stephano Calderon (106), Marcus Folk (120) and Thomas Brough (138). Beaufort’s Antonio Mcknight (144) also finished third.
On the girls’ side, Lawrence won her third individual championship by defeating Union County’s Stella Glenn, 19-9. She came into the tournament as the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the 145-pound division.
Beaufort’s Olesya Mullins finished second in the 105-pound class, losing to Rock Hill’s Serenity Davis, 8-1.
Third-place finishers were Hilton Head Island’s Jourdyn Mootry (130) and Makayla Hinchey (155).
Complete results from this weekend’s championships can be found at FloWrestling
This story was originally published February 23, 2025 at 6:53 PM.