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.

It’s our TCN sports Milestone of the Year.

“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 on Jan. 24.

“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 a Cary match against Chapel Hill, the third match of the day for the Imps, by the score of 58-15. It came 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 — Eloheim Palma and Gabe Brotzman — won their 200th individual matches.

“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,” Brotzman said.

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.