North Moore senior wrestler Kyle Kidd’s year-long goal of winning the state 1-A wrestling championship in the 182-pound class came up short last weekend at the state individual tournament held in Greensboro.

After going 36-0 this season, including an 8-2 victory in the state quarterfinals over Murphy’s Malachi Beaver, Kidd narrowly dropped his semifinal match 2-1 to eventual state champion Matthew Parce from Hendersonville.

The devastating loss that ended Kidd’s quest for the title sent him to the consolation bracket, giving him the opportunity to finish third in the state tournament. But he was pinned in the consolation finals by Mitchell County’s Tanner Buchanan, a wrestler Kidd defeated in last year’s tournament when he was the runner-up for the state championship.

Kidd finishes his wrestling career at North Moore with an 88-16 record in the three years he competed on the Mustangs’ wrestling team. North Moore resurrected the wrestling program under coach Mike West during Kidd’s sophomore year, after dropping the program a decade earlier.

Kidd went 20-7 during his sophomore campaign and 31-7 last year. Four of Kidd’s losses during his junior year were to state champion Carson Joyce from Chatham Central.

Kidd entered the state tournament as the East Regional No. 1 seed, having won the regional championship last week at Princeton.

In the state tournament quarterfinals held Friday in Greensboro, Kidd took on the Western Regional No. 4 seed Beaver. Kidd’s semifinal opponent Parce was the West’s No. 2 seed. Parce won his quarterfinal match over Chatham Central’s Seth Elkins, the No. 3 seed from the East.

After Parce defeated Kidd, he won the state championship, beating Ayden-Grifton’s Diego Martinez 5-2. Martinez was the East’s No. 2 seed, having lost the East Region championship to Kidd last week. Kidd defeated Martinez 6-1 in the regional finals.

To reach the consolation finals and a shot at third place, Kidd defeated Thomas Jefferson Academy’s Will McCraw by a 12-2 major decision, setting up the rematch against Buchanan. Buchanan was able to hand Kidd his only pin this year at the 2:06 mark on the match clock.