Newton-Conover and St. Stephens will host the first and second rounds of the state dual-team wrestling tournaments, which begin today.

Newton-Conover, who earned the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference's No. 1 2A seed, will host today's four-team "pod," which will begin at 5 p.m. at Newton-Conover Middle School. The match is being held at the middle school because Newton-Conover's basketball teams already have a home CVAC game scheduled with Patton.

Coming to Newton-Conover will be North Henderson, Wilkes Central and South Iredell. The Red Devils will face North Henderson, and Wilkes Central and South Iredell will meet, all first-round matches, with the winners meeting in the second round. North Henderson earned the Western Athletic Conference's No. 2 bid. Wilkes Central is the Mountain Valley Conference's No. 1 seed and South Iredell earned the Southern Piedmont's No. 2 seed.

St. Stephens, the CVAC regular season champion and the conference's only 3A seed, hosts Enka, Lake Norman and North Gaston today at 5:30 p.m. The Indians will face Lake Norman, and Enka and North Gaston will face off in the other match.

Lake Norman is the No. 2 seed from the Northern Piedmont Conference, and Enka and North Gaston are both No. 1 seeds, with Enka representing the Mountain Athletic and North Gaston the Big South.

The winners of today's four-team matches will advance to Thursday's sectional and regional rounds. There will be two, four-team pods, with four teams at one location. The winners of those two pods will meet Saturday in the state finals. This year, the western champion will host the state championship match.  

Hibriten earned the CVAC's other No. 2 seed, and it faces Pisgah today, with the winner going up against the winner of Madison and Starmount. Last year, Newton-Conover advanced to its first state 2A dual-team state final, where it lost to McMichael. No teams from the CVAC earned wildcard berths.