DURHAM — After the semifinal round of Saturday’s Piedmont Athletic Conference individual wrestling tournament at the Riverside High School gym, the Person Rockets were in second place, not far behind the league-leading Pirates.

But as fate would have it, the Rockets dropped four of six finals matches (all four against Riverside opponents) and lost five consolation finals bouts to end the day in fourth place.

Riverside finished first with 190.5 points followed by Northern Durham (153.5) in second, Chapel Hill (142) in third, and Person (135) in fourth.

Rounding out the standings on Saturday were Southern Durham (44), Jordan and East Chapel Hill (43) and Hillside (1).

Rocket head coach Mark Litchfield was pretty accurate in his pre-tourney assessment that his squad would acquit itself well in the PAC-6 event. The Rockets completed the day with two first-place finishes, four runner-up efforts, and five fourths.

“If we could have won a couple more matches in the finals, I think we would have finished second in the tournament,” he said. “Either way, I’m very proud of the way everyone wrestled. I still think that in the next few weeks we’ll wrestle our best, which is when we need to.”

Individual regional competition takes place next weekend (Feb. 15-16) at Chapel Hill High School and the states will be held on Feb. 22-23.

Person also received good news when it was awarded a wild card spot in the Division 4A duals tournament. The Rockets had a first-round contest against PAC-6 rival Chapel Hill on Tuesday (see results on page 8). The Tigers defeated Person by a 51-22 count during the regular season.

“The best news was that we made it to the duals tournament,” said Litchfield. “Our guys have worked hard and deserve to get a shot in the playoffs. The seniors haven’t had a chance to wrestle in the tournament and I’m glad they’ll get to do that in their senior year.”

Blake Wheeler (2-0 record on the day) was the Rockets’ most successful senior at Saturday’s event, earning first in the 140-pound division by scoring a second-round pin of Chapel Hill’s Byron Beddingfield in the finals.

Junior John Newton (3-0) was the other first-place finisher for the Rockets in the 152-pound competition, winning in the finals by a slim 1-0 decision.

Senior Patrick Stewart (2-1) came up just short to Riverside’s Scott McGee, 4-2, in the 145-pound championship match, and Kenzie Sherow (2-1) lost a 9-4 decision to the Pirates’ Jervis Reotuar in the 103-pound final.

Person’s other finals defeats were not as close.

Freshman Gerald Pollard (2-1) surprised many by making the finals, but ran into Riverside’s Tyrone Eatmon (ranked No. 1 in the state) and was pinned quickly in the 119-pound title match. C.J. Younger (1-1) suffered a takedown loss to Riverside’s Alex Timmons.

Five Rockets made the consolation finals, only to fall short there.

James Montoya (112 pounds, 2-2 record) lost a 13-5 decision, while Will Hutson (130, 1-2) was taken down in round two of his match and Nick King (125, 2-2) in the opening round of his.

In the higher weight classes, Michael Reardon (171, 1-2) lost a 6-4 decision, and Collin Campbell (2-2) was pinned in the second round of his heavyweight bout.

Andrew McCord (135 pounds) and Shaun Oakley (189) also competed for the Rockets on Saturday.