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. ”

— Coach Powell

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.

Dutch Fork (SC)

Head Coach: Bryan Bush (2nd year at Dutch Fork; 9th year overall)

Staff: Wes Bard, Campbell Clarkson, David Mckee, Vinnie Salek

Dutch Fork sits in an interesting place as we begin the 2022-23 season. They don’t return any state qualifiers from a season ago, but they do return some young talent that will look to make their mark. This team should get better and better as the season progresses and there are several hammers in the lineup that will look to punch their ticket to the big dance at the end of the season.

Kolin Kunkle finished 2-2 at Lower State in 2022 and is certainly the Silve Foxes best shot at having a qualifier in a tough 5A this season. Wilson Immesberger, Kalb McNeil and New Jersey transfer Noah La Vigne are all ones to keep an eye on. The Silver Foxes should feature two freshmen at the bottom of the lineup in Jackson Stocker and Lucas Thrun. Both competed well for their middle school team a year ago and will look to get the Silver Foxes off to a good start every time out.

“Our team is still in the rebuilding phase, but we should be very competitive this year. We only graduated 3 seniors (1 starter) and our MS program is coming off an incredible season last year and we hope to be adding some of those hammers to our Varsity lineup. We were very busy this summer in the weightroom, at multiple camps and other tournaments. We also have a good problem where we have multiple guys in most weight classes, so we’ll see who will be where in November.”

— Coach Bush

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.

Greenville (SC)

Head Coach: Nick Jones (entering 4th year)

Staff: James Berdan, Jay Belton, Chris Hart, Stu Katzen, Grantt Hopkins, Sean Linnane

Greenville finished 11th a season ago at the 4A Traditional State Tournament. The Raiders lose Marion Benson, but return all of their point-getters return in State Placer Grason Belton, Jonathan Sligh, Brayden Belton, and Miquel Kilgore. The Raiders have the horses to compete with the top teams in 4A at the Traditional State Tournament (or Upperstate) … the real challenge will be the new faces coming in and competing in the duals. Grason Belton will lead the way and should be hunting the top step. Sligh, Brayden Belton, and Kilgore all have state tournament experience and will push for a spot on the podium.

Keep an eye on Donovan Hawthorne who could make some noise up top at 195. The key will be the new group of Raiders that step on the mat for the first time … we might need to wait until after December (and the fall season) to see how this comes together for a push in January and February.

“Expectations are about as high as they have ever been in the past 10 years. We return 4 State Qualifiers and another that was 1 match away. We graduated a large portion of our lineup last year, so we will be trying to fill in the gaps in November and December but should be ready for the Region schedule in January. With a new Region we hope to improve our seeding for the playoffs. Ultimately we have a handful of guys we feel capable of making the podium at the end of the season. We are very excited to continue growing the program, scoring points, and having fun.”

— Coach Jones

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.