CARY — At the Tri-Eight wrestling championship on Saturday, Cary had 10 wrestlers in the 14 first-place matches, while Panther Creek had eight. Five of the matches pitted the two teams against one another.

It became clear that just like the regular season, the Tri-Eight title would come down to Cary and Panther Creek.

Six Imps wrestlers won individual conference titles to Panther Creek’s four, which was good enough to propel Cary to its 27th straight conference title.

Cary had 247.5 team points on the day while placing four more wrestlers at second place and one each at third and fourth place. The Imps are undefeated on the year.

“We’re doing enough to get by every week but it’s not easy. It’s a gut-wrencher every week,” coach Jerry Winterton said.

“I’m pleased we’ve accomplished what we have because I don’t think I thought we’d be sitting where we are now looking at the Panther Creeks, New Bern, Orange, Riverside, all the teams we’ve wrestled against in tournaments or dual-meets.”

The Imps got pins from Ben Creed at 103-pounds, Gabe Brotzman at 152, Matt Colvard at 160 and Eloheim Palma at heavyweight. Harrison Rosenbaum (119) and Ronnie Winterton (135) round out the Cary champions. Out of that group, only Brotzman and Palma are seniors.

“I don’t think they’re overachievers, I don’t think they know how good they are yet,” Jerry said. “They’re better than they’re wrestling and they’re wrestling well at the right time of year.”

Despite coming in runner-up, Catamounts coach Jon Armfield said he was pleased with how his team did, and felt the gap between Cary and the rest of the conference field was closing.

“We’re going to have a good team next year, so I don’t see us losing any place,” Armfield said. “With the right work in the off-season, I think we can win those couple of weight classes that [Cary] has up on us at this time.”

Panther Creek’s Matt Elliot (112), Joe Morrison (130), Alex Branoff (140) and Sheridan Rucker (189) all won individual titles for the third-year school.

“I’m proud of them, I’m really proud of them to get there. They did a lot of work this off-season. Most of my wrestlers are year-round. We’re already coming into something like this without a full lineup because we don’t have a heavyweight,” Armfield said.

“Cary’s tough to beat, and we were hoping we’d have it be a little closer but they had a lot of wins and pins in the final.”

After narrowly defeating Panther Creek in the regular season, 33-27, Winterton said he thought the Tri-Eight Conference was improving each year. Good enough to challenge as the state’s top wrestling conference, generally thought to be the PAC-6 which boasts Chapel Hill and Durham Riverside.

“We’re developing into quite a conference aren’t we? Between Green Hope last year and Panther Creek this year and some really good individuals from the teams that aren’t maybe really strong top-to-bottom, it’s becoming what the PAC-6 was,” Jerry said.

“I guess it’s like comparing the Big East to the ACC in basketball. We’re starting to make a push for that kind of recognition.”

Next year, it’ll only get tougher as Holly Springs, which finished second in the Greater Neuse Conference championship, will join the conference as part of the new Tri-Nine.

Other individual champions were Green Hope’s Kenny Buchanon (125), Apex’s Jeremy Overton (145), Fuquay-Varina’s Soren Ferrell (171) and Athens Drive’s Ryan Houston (215).

Cary and Green Hope learned they both would be competing at Chapel Hill High on Tuesday in the first round of the state dual playoffs. The Imps faced Chapel Hill, while Green Hope grappled with East Wake.

If both Tri-Eight teams win, they would face each other that same night.

Panther Creek also got a bid, and took on host Fayetteville Seventy-First High in the first round of a pod that included New Bern and Sanderson.

Should any area team win twice on Tuesday, they would wrestle again on Thursday.