The Imps jumped out to a big lead, picked up key pins, cruised to victory and the post-game handshaking was led by the only coach Cary has known these last 27 years, Jerry Winterton.

But this time, when Winterton, always gracious in victory, shook hands with the opposing Chapel Hill wrestlers and coaches, it marked the 600th time his teams had came out on the winning side.

"I don't know what to say. It's just a lot of hard work from a lot of kids over all those years. It's nice for me, but that's what I think of," Winterton said.

"I never even thought of anything like that, so I'm kind of flabbergasted about the whole thing. I've just been lucky to get this old, that just shows that you've been around for awhile."

Winterton, already the nation's leader in tournament victories, joined an elite group of coaches nationwide when he reached the 600-win plateau during the third annual Bob Mauldin's "Mat News Classic" at East Wake High School.

"He's always had the epitome of a program for wrestling in North Carolina," East Wake coach Mike Kendall said. "He truly does a great job of having his kids prepared and he's a good person. That Cary program is really lucky to have someone like him."

Win No. 600 came in Cary's match against Chapel Hill, the third match of the day for the Imps, by the score of 58-15. It comes as a bit of irony for Winterton, who started his head coaching career at East Wake 30 years ago.

"I didn't think about it till I was pulling up here today, but I got win No. 1 here too," Winterton said.

Winterton's 600th win came in the same match that two of his top wrestlers — heavyweight Eloheim Palma, ranked No. 1 in the nation and 152-pound Gabe Brotzman, ranked No. 1 in the state — won their 200th individual matches.

"It's kind of crazy all three of those came together at the same time," Brotzman said. "It makes it that much more special that another senior is reaching that benchmark and our coach, who has coached both of us all these years is going to hit an enormous point in his career as well."

The Imps won 44-22 over New Bern and 63-13 over Greenville Rose in the early morning to give Winterton wins No. 598 and 599.

"After practice yesterday it kind of all hit us that today would be a big day, history would be made," Palma said. "There was some nervousness there but it was something to fight for, something to push us through."

While eager to give their coach the milestone on Saturday, Cary wrestlers also felt the pressure to make sure No. 600 came as quick as possible. The Imps are undefeated on the year, so any loss would've caused some bittersweet emotions on the program's historic day.

"We didn't want to jinx it, but we knew we needed to win three to get coach that No. 600, which we have five matches to do it. We came out excited, wanting to do it right away," Brotzman said. "We didn't want to come in and lose one of the matches because it would put a damper on all of it. We were like 'let's just get it right away.'"

Cary went on to win their final two matches 58-13 over Sanderson and 63-3 over East Wake to claim the title at Bob Mauldin's "Mat News Classic."

Mauldin is the 39-year editor and publisher of "Mat News," a newsletter that recaps North Carolina high school wrestling scores.

"They've got one of the best programs in the state if not the best," Mauldin said. "Jerry is a phenomenal coach. He does a great job, has a lot of character about him, he's nice to know and nice to talk with and been helpful to me."

At the tournament, Mauldin was honored for producing the newsletter that is, as he calls it, "dedicated to help make wrestling a better sport," and a $400 scholarship was deemed in his name to senior wrestler or wrestlers of his choice.