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Northside had three wrestlers win their weight classes and pick up gold medals. Three others finished second and won silver medals while one other got a bronze medal after finishing third. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

Southside had five wrestlers finish in third place in the following weight classes: 106, 126, 150, 190 and 215 pounds. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

Northside’s Rylan Paul was nearly pinned but rallied and won the 144-pound final over Cody Roper of Topsail. The large crowd got behind Paul and cheered him on to a victory. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

Northside’s Liam Parisi won first place in the 106-pound weight class. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

Northside's Davis Polk won the 157-pound title. (Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

YEATESVILLE, N.C. — A long and busy day on Wednesday resulted in a rewarding outcome for Northside and Southside at the Coastal Plains Conference Individual Tournament, held at Northside.

Northside won three individual titles and seven medals overall, while Southside had five wrestlers each place third in their respective weight classes. While neither team qualified for the dual team state playoffs, their focus can now turn to healing up, working out and getting ready for the Class 1A individual tournament, which will be held at Rosewood High School in Goldsboro on Feb. 14-15.

“Holistically, we just overcome adversity, wrestling our matches, and then wrestling all six minutes,” Northside coach Daniel Garcia said. “That’s what we need to keep doing.”

“We had a great day,” Southside coach Stanley Dixon said. “As young as we are, we don’t have a senior at all on this team. We have three freshmen and two sophomores and a junior all place in the top three in their weight class.

The third-place winners for Southside were John Davis (106 pounds), David Beaven (126), Devin Dembrowski (150), Jonathan Salas-Aguillera (190) Ke’Monee Brimage (215).

“So we’re very pleased with that,” Dixon said, noting his athletes have benefitted from wrestling at Chocowinity Middle School. “I feel like we represented well here. Yeah, very pleased with how the day went.”

Northside’s Liam Parisi (106 pounds) picked up the first gold medal when he pinned Pamlico County’s Alex Eastwood in the first period. After that, Rylan Paul had one of the most dramatic finishes to earn gold at 144 pounds. He came very close to being pinned but slipped out and picked up the winning pin over Topsail’s Cody Roper in the third period.

Davis Polk won by decision at 157 pounds before Christopher Alonzo-Burgios lost an 8-6 decision in a tough match in the 165 finals. He was one of three Northside wrestlers to pick up a silver medal, joining Davis Kirk and Sam Mullis. Nicholas Jordan won bronze at 285 pounds.

“I mean, holistically, we’ve got to be third-period wrestlers, and that’s when we want to get our opponent to that third period, so we can handle business from there,” Garcia said. “And our goal was to get to that third period, and we know that we’re the better wrestler come third period, and that’s what showed today.”

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