Jack Frost strikes; NW grapplers take fourth

Published 10:24 pm Saturday, January 19, 2008

As winter weather on Saturday disrupted high school athletics in Dalton and around Georgia, Northwest Whitfield’s wrestling team finished fourth at state duals for the second straight year.

And the Bruins brought home their second trophy in as many visits to the Class 4A duals despite not wrestling a single match at the second day of the event.

With much of the state’s heaviest precipitation falling in Atlanta and Macon, Northwest and Murray County — which was competing in Class 5A — had their respective quests in the Georgia High School Association’s state duals at the Macon Centreplex altered by the weather.

In an effort to get teams out of town quickly, GHSA officials sped up the event by changing individual bouts from three two-minute periods to three one-minute periods and scrapped some duals altogether in the wrestlebacks.

The loser’s bracket matches were completed as far as possible, but officials wanted the event finished by noon, with no duals staged after the start of the championship final for each classification, said Murray County coach Chris Thornbury. Those matches, already set after Friday’s action, were moved from a planned start at 7:30 p.m. to 10 a.m.

Northwest placed after the GHSA decided third and fourth would be based on the result of the championship finals. When Ringgold beat Eastside for the Class 4A title, it made Tucker third and Northwest fourth since during Friday’s semifinals Tucker lost to Ringgold and Northwest lost to Eastside, 50-19.

Northwest coach Allen Tucker said it was “tough” for his Bruins to watch the Class 4A final with the Tucker Tigers also sitting in the stands — instead of having a straight-up dual with that school — but that he didn’t fault the GHSA’s decision to try and keep teams off the road in possibly hazardous conditions.

“We would have loved to wrestle Tucker,” said the Bruins coach, whose team had originally been scheduled for a consolation semifinal against Woodward Academy at noon. “I think it would have been a good match between us.”

Ringgold completed a late-season surge with the state title win. After losing 48-28 to Northwest during the regular season, Ringgold topped the Bruins 37-32 at last weekend’s Area 7-4A duals for that championship.

Northwest won matches against Woodland and Stockbridge on Friday before falling to Eastside.

“We’ll take our fourth,” Tucker said, “and get ready for the area and state traditional tournaments (next month), then start again next year.”

Murray County bounced back from its opening-round loss to Collins Hill to win three duals on Saturday. The Indians defeated East Coweta, 61-14, Hiram, 42-22, and Lowndes, 38-23, in the consolation quarterfinals.

Murray County would have faced Pope in the consolation semifinals, but didn’t get that opportunity. Still, the Indians were among six teams still standing when the completion deadline arrived.

“When we walked into the gym at 8, we had no idea about the weather or anything,” Thornbury said.

“We just wanted to represent our school a whole lot better than we did the day before. When I told (the wrestlers about the changes), I don’t think they really cared. They just wanted to wrestle. It was fun and they did well. I’m real proud of them.”

Highlights for the Indians included an undefeated performance by Keith Bennett, who wrestles at 152 and 160 pounds, during the event. Other wrestlers who had good showings included Dalton Lane (112), Charles Napier (119), Andrew Baldwin (140), Bryce Gibson (145), Justin Shoemaker (215) and Jake McConathy (285), Thornbury said.

Collins Hill topped Harrison in the Class 5A championship. Harrison beat Murray County 42-24 in last weekend’s Area 5-5A championship dual.

At Dalton High, the second day of the North Georgia Invitational regional swim meet was postponed due to travel concerns for many participating schools.

Half of the 16 teams scheduled to compete were unable to attend, said Dalton High swimming and diving coach Charles Todd. Coaches will meet early this week to decide whether to finish the event — only Friday’s diving portion has been completed — on Thursday or Saturday, Todd said.

Varsity boys and girls basketball games at Dalton, their start times already moved up two hours, were also postponed. Dalton girls coach Jeff McKinney said Coosa, the scheduled opponent for both teams, was unable to leave Rome when the school system’s superintendent determined conditions too snowy to travel.

McKinney said the schools will try to find a makeup date for the games, although that decision won’t be made before Tuesday.