Robbinsville’s historic championship bolstered by 3 repeat champions
Greensboro – What does it mean to be a “champion?”
Simply defined in the Oxford Dictionary, the term credits an individual as “a person who has defeated or surpassed all rivals in a competition, especially in sports.”
Heading into this year’s N.C. High School Athletic Association’s 1A Individual Tournament, Kage Williams, Koleson Dooley and Alexis Panama knew what it felt like to stand atop the awards podium on the south end of the historic Greensboro Coliseum. Six individual state titles already existed between the trio when the Robbinsville Black Knights began weigh-ins Friday.
Some 30 hours later, Williams, Dooley and Panama had ran the collective effort to nine championships. The three seniors took care of business in their brackets for the final time; in the process, they also delivered 72 crucial points to the team-championship race.
Elsewhere in the competition were six other Black Knights, hungry to sip from the golden nectar. Though the remaining 66 percent of Robbinsville’s entrants into the competition failed to capture a championship, almost all of them contributed to the team score – helping cement the program’s first-ever state individual tournament team title.
Kage Williams
The first whistles of the finals sounded at 165 pounds, across five centered mats on the floor of the coliseum.
Just underneath the seats where the Black Knights faithful nearly sequestered an entire section, Williams paced in the entrance tunnel, biding his time. The prior day, his 57-second, quarterfinal pinfall over South Stanly’s Aiden Wilson (26-15) pushed him into sole possession of Robbinsville’s all-time win leader (after the tournament, he exits his official high-school career with a record of 169-1). Along the way, 116 of those victories came thanks to pinfalls; his only “loss” came due to an injury forfeit in the finals of the Holy Angels tournament in Charlotte during the 2021-22 campaign, when he suffered a dislocated shoulder in his semifinal bout – and still pressed on to win.
Wrestlers like Williams do not come along every day. He committed to implement a fireman’s carry of his talents to Appalachian State University (a highly-touted NCAA program) as a junior. After pinning Draughn’s Hampton Blackwell (34-12) at the 2:34 mark of the semifinals, Williams entered Saturday with tunnel vision.
He gets into the proverbial zone the same way before a bout: headphones that provide a soundtrack to pump him up, the aforementioned pace that looks more like a “kaged” tiger than a human; and a gaze that lets by-passers know not to bother asking how the weather is outside.
Standing between the final component of a storied resume was Mitchell’s Camron Cook. With two classifications out of the way, Williams sprinted onto Mat No. 1, bathed in a single spotlight from the upper deck of the arena.
To his credit, Cook (40-11) put up the best fight of any opponent Williams faced in the state tournament. But the end result was the same: a pin, this time coming in exactly three minutes.
Typically a man of few words, the significance of his dominance throughout high school is not lost on him.
“I set a goal for myself in middle school to win state four times, so I expected it from myself to win all four,” Williams explained. “This feels pretty good; I’ve loved growing up and going to school in Robbinsville. It is very sad to let the sport go (locally).
“I’m very proud of the nine guys that qualified and also Luke Green, because he came to practice for me all week when he did not have to. It was very enjoyable to go out with an individual and team state championship: it just made it that much sweeter.”
For those keeping score at home, Williams is just the 13th grappler in North Carolina’s history to win four state championships. The totality of his impact resulted in Williams being named as the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the proceedings.
Koleson Dooley
Now competing as a heavyweight, Dooley reached the mountaintop for the first time last year – at 220 pounds.
He bumped up in the offseason and at the individual tournament, rattled off three decision wins over Albermarle’s Miles Gregory (28-7), Avery County’s Grayson Hoilman (20-5) and Starmount’s Johnatan Argueta (22-4).
Dooley (37-4) collected his second championship after posting respective 7-3, 2-1 (overtime) and 3-1 nods.
“It’s an honor and I’m glad the hard work that not many people know about came out. I’m also glad we won as a team,” Dooley said. “I told myself before the match that this was most likely the last time I would ever wrestle, so I had to tell myself to lay it on the line.
“This team was something special. The kids that stuck by us through this season are the toughest and grittiest group that I’ve ever been apart of. I’m incredibly thankful for them and my coaches.”
Alexis Panama
The first taste of gold came as a sophomore, at 113 pounds.
Panama also ventured into the next weight class after winning Title No. 1; in his case, making room for his younger brother Adair to slide into the 113-pound role. The shift did little to deter his talents; he promptly won the 120-pound championship to conclude both his junior and senior seasons.
He left Uwharrie Charter Academy’s Brennan Worrell (30-13), Albemarle’s Christian Harris (31-6) and Thomasville’s Josue Gomez (47-4) lying in the wake of his quest for this year’s top billing. Each fell via pins; Panama (50-3) needed just 8:47 of mat time to dispose of the opposition.
“It’s definitely a special one: going out being a 3-time state champion,” Panama said. “Not only that, but we won it as a team – which was a pretty special moment. Knowing it would be the last match I would ever wrestle, I told myself, ‘no regrets.’ And I just left it all out on the mat.
“Our team is stacked with studs all across our lineup. We knew we could do it from the beginning of the season if we just left it all out on the mat.”
State finalists
Adair Panama (113 pounds, 50-3) and Loxston Hooper (126, 49-3) fought their way to the finals, but were unable to break through for a championship.
Adair pinned Uwharrie Charter’s Caleb Saldana (28-18) at 5:54 in the quarterfinals and racked up a 15-6 majority decision against North East Carolina Prep School’s Colton Lewis (49-6) in the semis.
But he had a tough draw in the finals, as repeating state champion Cooper Foster (Avery County, 53-0) stood on the other side of the circle when the lights came back up for the finals. Adair tussled valiantly in the early going, but Foster soon cinched a pinfall at 1:49.
Hooper’s finals loss was perhaps the most shocking of the tournament. To reach the bout, Hooper bested Eastern Randolph’s David Lambright (34-8) in a 9-3 decision and South Stanly’s Ikey Holt (39-4) via a 14-4 major.
The title was in his grasp, but it slipped away with mere seconds to go: literally and figuratively. Hooper led 6-5 and was firmly holding Rosewood’s Jason Kennedy (52-2) to the mat, but took a quick glance at the clock as it ticked closer to zero.
In the blink of an eye, Kennedy slipped loose and slipped around Hooper for two points as the final buzzer sounded. All Hooper could do was look on in shock, as the lesson began to resonate in his mind.
Undoubtedly, the mistake will not happen again.
Other competitors
Adair’s finals appearance netted 17 team points for Robbinsville; Loxston’s qualification for the title bout resulted in a 15-point contribution.
But a little insurance never hurt.
After placing third in their fields, Skyler Anderson (106, 50-4) and Lleyton Hooper (138, 39-15) both padded the outcome by posting respective 12.5 and 13-point additions.
Anderson dropped the Knights’ debut in the tournament: a 6-1 decision, to eventual state finalist Ethan Hines (Uwharrie Charter Academy, 47-2). He battled back in the consolation bracket by scoring a 16-1 technical fall over Eastern Randolph’s Joshua Watson (29-14); a 6-2 decision against Avery County’s Alexandero Ical Tuil (30-11); and Mount Airy’s Angel Olade (38-5) in the 3rd-place match, after Olade suffered an injury in the third period.
Lleyton suffered a 15-0 technical at the hands of Ryan Mann (North East Carolina Prep School) in the quarterfinals; Mann finished the year as the 1A, 138-pound champion by posting a 56-0 record on the season. To obtain the bronze medal, Lleyton received a forfeit win; pinned Bradford Preparatory School’s Gavin Mann (39-15) at 3:35; and gutted out a 10-8 decision over South Stokes’ Isaac Nelson (27-14).
Robbinsville was also represented by Avery Phillips (132, 39-13) and Kellen Ensley (215, 27-12).
Phillips was not pinned in the tournament, but dropped respective 8-5 and 5-2 bouts to Lejeune’s James Campos (35-7) and Albemarle’s Armando Popcoa (26-18).
Pamlico County’s Tyler Stevens (39-8) earned an 11-3 major in the quarterfinals over Ensley, but triumphed against Eastern Randolph’s Maddox Carson (26-11) in the consolation quarterfinals, 3-1. East Wilkes’ Tristan Alkire (40-5) ended his run with a pinfall at 3:48.