Trey Weliver's bid to become Union Pines' first wrestling state champion got of to a good start Friday. Wrestling in the Class 3/A 130-pound classification, Weliver pinned Aaron Plyler of East Rowan at 1:13 in the first round. He then topped Bryan Johnson of Trinity, 7-2, to advance to Saturday's semifinals at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Weliver entered Saturday needing to go 2-0 to become the fourth wrestler from Moore County to win an individual title. Pinecrest High School has had three individual state champions in wrestling. The last was Zack Martin in 2004. Jimmy Buchholz won in 1975 and Don Bahr in 1974.

Kaleb Rierson, Brandon Berry and Randy Stevens, all of Union Pines, and Dustin Roemer of Pinecrest all have one loss, but entered Saturday's competition with a chance to finish as high as third place in their respective weight classes.

UP sophomore Daniel Deardorff did not advance to day two of the meet, losing his opening two matches in the 112-pound classification.

Rierson, a junior, started his tournament with a 6-3 decision over Travis Cox of Hunter Huss in the 215-pound classification. He then dropped into the consolation bracket with a 4-0 loss to Christian McLean of Southwest Guilford. He met Daniel Lambert of Bartlett Yancey in the second round of the consolation bracket on Saturday.

Berry lost a tough 4-3 decision to East Rowan's Chase Thompson in the opening round at 119 pounds.

He bounced back with a 4-3 win over Bryan Bowen of Webb to advance to Saturday's second round of the consolation bracket.

Cody Stephens of St. Stephens sent Randy Stevens into the consolation bracket with a 7-4 decision in their opening match at 125 pounds. The Viking wrestler bounced back with a 7-2 win over Zack Priester of Charlotte Catholic. He faced Chad Mullins of Marvin Ridge in his first match Saturday.

In the 4-A meet, Pinecrest's Dustin Roemer, lost his opening match in the 125-pound classification, 12-4, to Brett Boston of Freedom. He bounced back with a pinfall win over Trey Lambert of East Forsyth in the consolation bracket's first round. He faced Kamal Leak of South View in Saturday's second round.

Rierson, Berry, Stevens and Roemer could all finish third by winning three straight matches Saturday.

For results from Saturday's championship round go online to www.thepilot.com.

Contact Tom Embrey at 693-2477 or by e-mail at tembrey@thepilot.com. ?