May River (SC)
Head Coach: Coach Powell (6 years at May River; 10th overall)
Staff: Coach Bonneville, Coach Walker, Coach Cataldo, Coach Gio
Over the last handful of years, May River has developed into one of the best programs in South Carolina. They have finished 2nd to Eastside in consecutive seasons and the Eagles should be the obstacle again in 2022-23. The Sharks return a quartet that can compete with anyone. Emilio Mendoza, Isaiah Wysong, and Santiago Rueda will be extremely tough from 126-145 with former State Champ Gabriel Juarez slated to be the key for the Sharks in the upper-middleweights from 160-182. Those four will give May River a ton of points and will keep them in the hunt … but for the Sharks to overtake Eastside and keep the other 4A teams at bay they will need others to step up and make some noise.
Keep an eye on Kaiden McCallum and Walter Briones - both of which should fit into the lineup down low around Mendoza, Wysong, and Rueda. Finding a 106 and 113 to step in and be a force will be important. Keep an eye out for Marcus Foulk at the bottom of the Sharks lineup this season. Coach Powell will look to Corey Faulk, Jose Echiverria, Will Mauro, and Billy Hall up top. This is a solid squad - there are a few holes to fill, but if Coach Powell and his staff can get some new faces to step up with an established core group of Rueda, Juarez, and company … this is a team that should, once again, be back in the mix at the end of the year.
The May river shark wrestling team enters year 7 of the program after finishing state runner-ups in back to back seasons before losing to state power Eastside high school both seasons. We return 5 state qualifies with 4 of the being all state wrestlers in previous seasons and 2 of them state champions. We have had a really solid off season as we have a group of wrestlers who lack experience but have been putting in work on the mat and weight room during the summer and off season. We have some holes to fill but we hope our leaders step up and continue to help lead our young wrestlers. We have some very solid teams in our region and lower state this year so we have our work cut out for us this season. We have to be ready to go to war everyday.
NOTE: All mentions of placers and qualifiers in the body are based on the 2021-22 season. If a wrestler placed higher or lower in a previous year it is not captured above.