The West Lincoln women’s cross-country team captured the Catawba Valley 2A Conference championship at Southside Park in Newton on Monday afternoon, finishing with a team low 49 points.

The Lady Rebels placed four runners in the top 10 of the event, including Chloe Compton (5th), Jillian Mawyer (6th), Abi Barkley (9th) and Adleigh Sutton (10th).

East Burke’s Meah Walsh was the individual winner with a time of 20:22.90. The Cavaliers finished second as a team in the women’s race with 61 points, followed by third-place Maiden with 63.

In the men’s conference championship event, it was Bandys taking first

The Western Foothills Athletic Conference recently released the results for the 2021 Women’s Tennis Tournament.

The East Lincoln Lady Mustangs were the team champions of the tournament. The top four individual and doubles finishers are listed below.

Individual Results:

(1)Emma Carver - North Lincoln

(2)Alexis Wolgemuth - Fred T. Foard

(3)Meghan Restino - North Lincoln

DENVER – The flea flicker is one of the most intricate plays in football, a bit of razzle dazzle that requires crisp execution.

But would you believe a double flea-flicker?

East Lincoln pulled off the trickery Friday night in a 42-6 Western Foothills 3A Conference win over St. Stephens.

The play clicked for a 68-yard touchdown late in the first half and sent the Mustangs (6-2, 3-2) into the dressing room with a 28-0 cushion.

The score reached 42-0 midway through the third quarter, and the rest of

The West Lincoln women’s tennis team capped off the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A Conference season with a sweep of both the regular-season and tournament championships.

Just days after capturing the first women’s tennis conference championship in school history, the Lady Rebels edged out Maiden and Newton-Conover to win the CVAC Tournament title.

The CVAC Player-of-the-Year award went to Alexa Allison of Newton-Conover, while West Lincoln’s Ken Hilderbran was named the conference’s Coach-of-the-Year.

The CVAC Tournament results are listed below.

The West Lincoln High School women’s tennis team made history earlier in the week, capturing their first conference championship in school history.

The team defeated Lincolnton on Monday by a score of 9-0 to clinch the Catawba Valley 2A Conference championship with a perfect 6-0 mark, and finishing off a 10-1 regular season overall.

West head coach Ken Hilderbran’s squad knocked on the door of a championship a season ago even with the distraction of Covid-19. The Lady Rebels posted a 6-1 record, losing only to East Lincoln 5-4 in a highly-contested match.

Hilderbran noted that the short turnaround between last season and this

North Lincoln’s Brennan Rogers (left) helped lead the Knights to a 26-0 home win on Friday over St. Stephens.  The junior running back carried the ball 20 times for 130 yards and a pair of touchdowns.  East Lincoln’s Orlandis Howell-Johnson (center) gave the Mustangs offense a boost with 104 yards rushing on just four carries.  Howell-Johnson also reached the end zone once in East Lincoln’s 54-0 win over Fred T. Foard.  And Mustang linebacker Ben Cutter (right) had another dominating performance.  The junior led the defense with 13 tackles, including one for a loss, and intercepted a Tiger pass.  Lincoln county football teams went 4-0 last Friday night, mostly due to running the ball effectively and playing good, solid defense. 

The North Lincoln Knights overcame a slow start on Friday to take down the St. Stephens Indians by a score of 26-0 and remain in a second-place tie in the Western Foothills 3A Conference.

The shutout victory was the second straight for North Lincoln, who has allowed just 20 points through their first four league contests.

While both offenses struggled throughout most of the first half, the Knights broke through at the midway point of the second quarter with a 3-yard touchdown run by junior running back Brennen Rogers to take a 6-0 lead.

North Lincoln’s defense, who was dominant all night long, kept the Indians offense in check and made sure the Knights headed to the locker room at

     The West Lincoln Lady Rebels golf team won  their match on Tuesday, October 5 at Lincoln Country Club.  The Rebels shot a team score of 135, and were led by Match Medalist Reese Coltrane who tied a school record with a score of 37.  Coltrane also made a double- eagle 2 on the par-5 hole number 16, when she holed out her second shot from 195 yards away.  Other Rebel scores were Brooke Beddingfield 47, Ray Watson 51, Abby Baxter 54, Hannah Baxter 55 and Natalee Gentry 60.  West Lincoln will play at Salisbury Country Club on October 18 in the NCHSAA 2A Western Regional Tournament. 

CHAPEL HILL - The North Carolina High School Athletic Association presented special awards at the virtual regional meetings that were completed this week.

Commissioner Que Tucker and Assistant Commissioner Tra Waters presented both the Charlie Adams Distinguished Service Awards and the Special Person awards to recipients in each region.

The Charlie Adams Distinguished Service Awards, named for the Association’s late, long-time Executive Director, are given per region and go to a person with at least 10 years of experience in education and athletics who is still active in the field and has regularly gone “above and beyond” the call of duty at both the local and the state level. The Special Person

CHERRYVILLE—Gene Banks fondly remembered his college trainer at Duke, Cherryville native Max Crowder, and ten stars from Cherryville’s sporting past along with one of its greatest teams were honored Saturday at the 2021 Cherryville Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet.

A sizable crowd of family and fans turned out for the event, revived by the organization’s board of directors after an absence of more than a dozen years.

The enshrining of the 1985 state 2A championship basketball team capped the awards ceremony at First Baptist Church’s Christian Outreach Center. That team went 30-1 and captured the school’s lone NC title in basketball

A theme is emerging for the Lincolnton football team when it comes to the second half of games.

For the second week in a row, the Wolves have rebounded from erratic first half play and halftime deficits to secure a win.

Friday night at Lincolnton’s Memorial Stadium, Lincolnton trailed 7-0 at intermission and managed only one first down in the first two quarters, and that came on a penalty early in the game.

The second half, however, was a complete reversal of form. The Wolves (2-4, 2-1) put up 21 points in the third quarter alone and finished with a flurry of 27 unanswered to defeat Bandys 27-7 in a Catawba Valley 2A

The West Lincoln men’s cross-country team took first place at the Shelby Invitational cross-country event on Tuesday afternoon.

Damon Cook of Shelby was the men’s individual winner with a time of 18:22.20, with West Lincoln’s Evan Hartsoe taking second place with a time of 18:57.20.

The Rebels’ Andy Saine finished fourth (19:32.60) and Caleb Carpenter (19:54.90) was fifth. Charlie Wyant (21:14.60) of West Lincoln rounded out the top 10.

The Rebels’ Chloe Compton (23:56.00) had a fourth-place finish in the women’s race. Abi Barkley (25:10.10) and Adleigh Sutton (25:12.70) of

The West Lincoln Lady Rebels took second place at last week’s Catawba Valley 2A Conference cross-country meet.

Jillian Mawyer, Abi Barkley and Adleigh Sutton all finished in the top 10 to lead West Lincoln.

Maiden was the team winner in the women’s race, while Bandys finished first in the men’s race.

The top 25 individuals in each race are listed below.

Women’s results (Top 25)

1 Emily Hedrick 11 Bandys 23:06.04 1; 2 Kylin Wayne 11 Maiden 23:14.87

Lincolnton overcame a 10-point second-half deficit to defeat the Red Devils 21-17 at Newton-Conover on Friday for their first win of the season.

Khamoni Heath’s 11-yard touchdown run with 1:12 to play in the game gave the Wolves their first and only lead of the night, and Lincolnton held off the Red Devils on the final drive to get in the win column.

Newton-Conover got on the scoreboard early when Zand Redmond intercepted a Lincolnton pass and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown just 43 seconds into the contest. A Dax Shannon extra-point kick made it 7-0.

Shannon made it 10-0 midway through the second period with a 28-yard field goal, before the Wolves got on the board with a 20-yard scoring pass

Week 5 of the high school football season was also the first week of conference action for our local teams.

Three of the four Lincoln County teams opened conference play with a tough loss, while it took West Lincoln an overtime period to get a hard-fought 20-17 win at Bandys.

Junior Mason Avery had another big performance for the Rebels. While he was held to a season-low 62 yards on the ground on 18 carries, Avery did get into the end zone twice.

He opened the scoring with a one-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter, and his 10-yard burst in overtime ended the contest with West

Big plays and solid defense were key in Bunker Hill’s 20-6 Catawba Valley 2A Conference-opening win over the Wolves Friday night at Lincolnton.

With the first half of play being dominated by the two defenses, the Bears broke through with a 30-yard field goal from Alan Bahena Soto with just 17 seconds remaining to take a slim 3-0 lead into the locker room at the break.

Midway through the third period, Bunker Hill’s Justin Killian broke free and outraced Lincolnton defenders for an 82-yard touchdown that gave the Bears some separation. Soto’s PAT made it a 10-0 game.

The Bunker Hill kicker would add a second field goal late in the third from

The West Lincoln Rebels were the only Lincoln County football team to see action this past Friday, after scheduling a game with Ashbrook following a week 3 cancellation of a matchup with Fred T. Foard.

West Lincoln defeated the 3A Green Wave with the stop of a 2-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game with just 51 seconds remaining.

The Rebels’ recipe for success was evident once again, run the football, don’t turn it over and play good defense.

West Lincoln had a whopping 50 carries on Friday for 320 yards, three

GASTONIA -- A closely contested game that went back and forth set up a dramatic finish Friday night in a long-delayed season opener at Ashbrook’s William C. Eccles Field.

In a stretch of 36 seconds, West Lincoln scored at the end of a textbook 89-yard drive, all on the ground, only to see Ashbrook answer with an 84-yard pass play

In the end, the game came down to a two-point conversion attempt after the Green Wave pulled within 21-19 with 51 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. However, Chandler Meeks’ pass was batted around and

CHAPEL HILL – The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) distributed $1,717,803.65 to the Association’s member schools from interest earned on the Association’s Endowed Funds during 2020-2021. This total is in addition to the $4 million distribution approved by the Board of Directors in the COVID-19 Athletic Program Subsidy (CAPS) initiative from earlier in the fiscal year.

On July 27, 2021, the newly formed NCHSAA Endowment Advisory Committee reviewed the Endowment and recommended a 7% share on investment earnings for member schools in 2020-2021. The Board approved that recommendation in August, and the over $1.7 million end-

Last Friday was another good night of high school football, although it may have been just a bit out of the ordinary.

North Lincoln exploded for 54 points, their highest output of the year by far. The Knights ran for 504 yards in the game and scored on eight rushing touchdowns.

At East Lincoln, the Mustangs held off the Wolves for a 14-8 victory in a game that was much closer than many Friday Night Forecasters (including myself) had anticipated.

The Lincolnton defense had its best outing of the young season, holding

DENVER -- East Lincoln faced its first true adversity of the season Friday night against county rival Lincolnton, but the Mustangs survived to complete an unbeaten run through the non-conference part of their schedule.

“We won the first two games by a lot, but I am more proud of this game,” East Lincoln coach Dave Lubowicz after his team’s tense 14-8 win. “We didn’t play especially well, but we showed great grit and determination.”

On a night when East Lincoln lost key players to injuries, the Mustang defense created two short-field opportunities for the offense.

Both East Lincoln scores came in the first half after Lincolnton turned the

It took Trista Primmer more than one try to make Lincoln County football history in West Lincoln’s season opener August 20 against North Lincoln.

The East Lincoln Mustangs were forced to move their Week 2 football game at Forestview to Saturday at Stuart Cramer High School due to the playing field issues.

The Mustangs, however, were not affected by the move, posting 31 points on the scoreboard to improve to 2-0.

Junior wide receiver Markell Clark had a huge night for the East Lincoln offense, hauling in 10 receptions for 174 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Those passes came from teammate Tyler Mizzell, who had another solid performance for the Mustangs. The junior completed 13 of his 20 attempts

Rivalry games don’t always live up to their expectations, but Friday night’s North Lincoln at Lincolnton contest sure did.

In a game that had two fourth-quarter lead changes, the Knights outlasted the Wolves 28-18 for their fourth-straight win in the series on a hot, humid night at Memorial Stadium in Lincolnton.

After sophomore quarterback Andre Bost’s one-yard touchdown run gave the Wolves their first lead of the game, North Lincoln answered with a 68-yard drive capped by a Brennen Rogers 4-yard scoring run that gave the Knights the lead for good.

North Lincoln tacked on a late score on a 3-yard quarterback keeper by

Both teams will be looking for their first win of the season tonight when the North Lincoln Knights visit the Lincolnton Wolves at Memorial Stadium at 7:30 p.m.

North Lincoln lost a 14-7 nail-biter a week ago at rival West Lincoln, where they came within just two yards of the goal line on the game’s final play, nearly sending the game to overtime.

Lincolnton, on the other hand, was beaten rather soundly by a good South Point team at Belmont.

Tonight, North Lincoln is looking for an unprecedented fourth-straight win over the Wolves. In this three-game win streak, the Knights average

The first week of the high school football season is behind us now, but not without some notable performances that are definitely worth mentioning.

The East Lincoln football team had a worthy performance of its own, going on the road and defeating perennial power Hibriten on the road by a wide margin.

The two schools have recently made the move from 2A to 3A, and could meet again in the postseason.

Tyler Mizzell, the Mustangs’ junior quarterback, had a big night completing 12 of his seventeen pass attempts for 153 yards and 3 touchdowns, helping

VALE -- The seventeenth football meeting between North Lincoln and West Lincoln more than lived up to the series’ reputation for close games, big plays, and most of all, nail-biting endings.

In the fall season opener Friday night at Douglas C. Leonhardt Memorial Stadium, West Lincoln’s defense stopped the Knights at the one-yard line with no time left on the clock, sealing a 14-7 victory.

The Rebel win, which reversed a 10-6 loss in the spring at North Lincoln, enabled West Lincoln to break an 8-8 tie in the county rivalry.

West Lincoln had an enormous edge in time of possession and rushing yardage, yet the outcome remained in doubt until the end. The Rebels

The high school football season kicks off tonight with all four county schools in action.

Lincolnton travels to Belmont to take on South Point in the season opener for both teams. You hear things about the Red Raiders being down a bit as a program, but just last season they lost to a very good Burns team 28-27 and defeated Shelby 28-16.

What’s “down” about that?

The Wolves are a young football team and will start several sophomores on both sides of the ball. Lincolnton is basically in a rebuilding situation under

After four years of playing at the 2A level, the Knights move back to 3A this fall where they’ll participate in the Western Foothills 3A Conference.

The league will include Statesville, Hickory, St. Stephens, Fred T. Foard, North Iredell and West Iredell, along with county-rival East Lincoln and the Knights.

Probably the most consistent football program in the group of eight schools over the last four seasons is Statesville. The Greyhounds have gone 36-10 since the 2017 season, and won 18 of their twenty games against North Piedmont 3A competition.

As for the other seven non-Lincoln members, they’ve all had their ups and

The West Lincoln Rebels are coming off of a 5-3 season that included a 4-2 mark in the South Fork 2A Conference and a second-place finish.

West Lincoln’s overtime win over East Lincoln this past Spring secured them a playoff berth, one of only two that were allotted to the conference.

The Rebels are 15-7 under third-year head coach Darren Ponder, and the program just keeps on improving.

This past Spring, West Lincoln finished 4-2 in a very solid South Fork 2A Conference. They did fall 21-20 at Mount Pleasant in the opening round of the playoffs.

In fact, the team’s three losses in the Spring of 2021 (North Lincoln,

The first-ever Lincoln County Jamboree kicked off Friday evening with a bang as West Lincoln put up 29 points in a half of football against the Green Wave of Ashbrook in the first contest of the day.

After the Rebels took an early 7-0 lead on a 4-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jordan Truesdale and a Rodrigo Serafin extra point, the Green Wave answered with a 2-yard scoring toss from Chandler Meeks and added a 2-point conversion for an 8-7 advantage.

West Lincoln retook the lead early in the second period on a 64-yard run from Charles Winnex and the point after by Trista Primmer that made it 14-8, before Ashbrook answered again with a 4-yard TD run by Carmelo Bess. Again the two-point conversion was good, and the Green Wave led 16-14

After a run of just three head football coaches in 56 years, the Wolves have their third head coach in the last four seasons.

Under the leadership of former head coaches Von Ray Harris, Richard Smith and Scott Cloninger, Lincolnton posted a record of 404-221-8, winning 65 percent of their games.

Since the retirement of Cloninger in 2014, the Wolves have gone just 37-35, including four straight losing seasons.

Longtime assistant coach David Byrd takes over this season. Byrd will be the first Lincolnton High School graduate to be the head coach of the

The East Lincoln Mustangs are not only moving to a new conference this season, but also moving to the 3A classification in all sports including football.

But don’t let the move up in classification fool you.

The Mustangs have a load of talent returning off of last Spring’s team that finished 5-2 in a Covid-shortened season, and should contend for the Western Foothills 3A Conference championship.

Twelve starters return for head coach David Lubowicz, who is entering his fifth season as the East Lincoln leader.

Junior D-1 recruit Ben Cutter returns at linebacker for the Mustangs. The

The Lincoln County Sports Hall of Fame has announced the inductees for the class of 2021.

Jamye Barkley, Mark Beam, Cheron Farley, Kane Haynes and James “Jim” Smith were recently selected by the LCSHOF Board of Directors to be inducted at the banquet this November.

Barkley attended East Lincoln High School, where she was an All-Conference basketball player in 1982 and 1983. Also in 1983, she was named the Western Piedmont Conference Player of the Year, and also chosen to play in the East-West All-Star game.

Beam is a graduate of West Lincoln High School, where he was a three-

With the start of the high school football regular season just 11 days away, it’s time to take a look at some of the schedule shake-ups for the 2021 fall season.

The biggest change on the local front has to be the absence of the annual East Lincoln-West Lincoln county-rival matchup.

The two schools have had a long history of meeting on the gridiron with some very competitive contests, and the fans will not get that experience in this 2021 fall season.

Just last Spring, the two teams played an overtime contest that finished

Lincolnton High School has named Brent Gates as the school’s next athletic director.

A 2004 graduate of West Lincoln High School, Gates has spent the last 13 years working for Lincoln County Schools, including 10 of those at Lincolnton High.

He has coached football, baseball and wrestling during his entire 13-year career with the Wolves, and assisted with women’s basketball during the 2021 spring season.

Gates coaching resume includes stints with the Cherryville Post 100 Junior

CHAPEL HILL – In a year like none before, high school athletics managed to complete regular seasons and award conference championships, providing student-athletes across the state valuable opportunities to compete, grow and learn in an education-based setting. There were numerous schools that excelled across many sports in their conference competitions, and they have won the Wells Fargo Conference Cup award for their respective conferences.

The Wells Fargo Conference Cup award, sponsored by Wells Fargo and the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, is a companion to the statewide Wells Fargo Cup. The Conference Cup is based on regular season performances within conference play and is designed to recognize the best

The Cherryville Post 100 Junior American Legion Baseball team recently capped off the 2021 season by winning their first-ever state championship.

Following a four-year absence of the program, the Post 100 juniors returned this year to finish the best season in their history. The team finished 19-4 under head coach Stan Haynes, on its way to defeating fellow Area IV rival Matthews in the N.C. state championship game.

The Cherryville Legion Juniors had a solid combination of hitting and pitching, including Lincolnton High School’s Will Blackburn, who hit .545 in the state tournament. Blackburn had 12 hits in the event, including 4

Cherryville Post 100 overcame an early 2-0 deficit, but did not have an answer for a big 7-run fourth inning that saw Wilmington Post 10 take control of the semifinal contest and eventually advance to Sunday’s Finals.

Third baseman Ben McNeil went 4 for 4 with a walk to lead the Wilmington (14-1) offensive attack. McNeil homered, drove in 3 runs and scored five of Post 10’s seventeen runs.

Drew Tyndall, the Wilmington catcher, was 3 for 4 with a home run and 3 runs batted in, and Barrett Swails had a 3 for 5 game with a homer and 3 RBIs.

Starting pitcher Tucker Bowyer was the winner on the mound for Post 10,

It may have taken a while to get things going, but the Cherryville offense came through with a big seven-run fifth inning to take control of their opening game of the 2021 American Legion Baseball N.C. State Tournament in Wednesday’s nightcap.

Post 100 overcame a 2-0 deficit in their first game of the tournament, scoring one run in the fourth and plating seven runs in the home half of the fifth to capture an 8-2 win.

Wayne County broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third inning on a RBI triple from Justin Holland, who later scored on an infield error to take the

East Lincoln’s Chase Lynch played in the North Carolina Coaches Association’s East-West All-Star Soccer Game on July 20 at MacPherson Park in Greensboro.

Lynch was nominated by now former Mustang coach Billy Howell, and was selected to the team by a panel of members from the NCCA. He was one of only 30 players from across the state selected for the game.

Lynch was also named an academic All-Star by the NCCA for having an unweighted GPA above 3.0. He became the third player in the East Lincoln soccer program to be selected for the men’s soccer All-Star game, along

The Boger City 12U All-Star baseball team recently finished runner-up at the North Carolina Dixie Youth State Tournament in Eden.

The team went 3-2 against the tournament field of six teams, including a 10-4 win over South Stanly and a 13-10 victory against Anson County.

The 2021 All-Star team achieved the highest placement for a Boger City team in a state tournament in the last decade. This team has shown strength and great leadership and has proven with guidance what young boys in our community can accomplish.

The 12U team members include Kaleb Beal, Austin Finger, Jaxson Futrell,