Draughn sophomore wrestler Brinkley caps year on state podium

Burke County’s only 2024-25 NCHSAA West Regional wrestling champion wasn’t done there.

Draughn High School sophomore Connor Brinkley also recently became the county’s highest finisher at this year’s individual state championships, which were held Feb. 22-24 at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Competing at the 1A 215-pound class, Brinkley claimed wins in three of his four total matches at state to earn a third-place podium finish and cap his prep season with a record of 44-8.

The Wildcats’ standout underclassman started the tournament by topping Siler Hall of Pamlico via third-period pin at 5 minutes, 51 seconds but fell on an 8-3 decision in the championship semifinals against eventual state-runner-up Aaron Ruiz-Angel of Mount Airy.

Brinkley rebounded to beat Robbinsville’s Kellen Ensley by first-period pin at the 1:54 mark in the consolation semis before ending his season with an 8-5 decision over Nick Wade of Rosewood in the third-place match.

Three county seniors each competed in the 2A portion of the state event (which featured 16 competitors at each eight versus just eight in 1A) at the same site: Patton’s Luke Parker and Burke Wilson, who were each making a second consecutive appearance at state, as well as East Burke’s Zach Ward.

At 144 pounds, the regional runner-up Parker gained the 150th victory of his four-year prep career in the event as he opened with back-to-back wins to join Brinkley as the only locals this winter to reach the championship semis.

Parker first pinned Cody Roper of Trask at 1:01 in the opening period before taking a 14-9 decision over Lukas Allman of Mount Pleasant.

Parker then suffered a third-period pinfall setback (5:13) versus eventual state runner-up Gabe Foreman of Washington and fell twice more successively to end the tournament in sixth place, losing to Jazay Milner of Morehead via 15-5 major decision before Allman hit him with a 20-5 tech fall for payback as Parker finished 43-10 for the season.

Wilson lost his 175-pound opener to Brock Blizzard of Morehead on a third-period pin at 4:45, then claimed a 16-0 tech fall over Desmond Mitchell of Southwest Onslow to advance but was knocked out after a second-period pinfall loss to Elijah Hendren of Wilkes Central (3:22). Wilson was 49-12 on the season.

And Ward at 138 pounds lost in the first round to Elijah Horton of Morehead (15-0 tech fall) but topped Kaden Rosenbrock of Pasquotank via second-period pin (2:18) before a loss to Maddock Cody of Seaforth via 8-5 decision to end things at 23-9 for the year.