Local wrestlers shoot for titles

Published 10:59 pm Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Among this year’s local qualifiers for the state traditional tournament, there’s a mix of first-timers and veterans, including some who have come just short of earning the highest of honors at Georgia high school wrestling’s season-ending event.

Regardless of what’s happened in the past, though, the 28 area athletes who are at the Arena at Gwinnett Center will all be dreaming of what it would be like to hear their names called during introductions for Saturday night’s championship finals.

The best way to get there, though, might be to simply think about today instead.

“I’m telling every one of my wrestlers, ‘Don’t look at the second round,’” said Northwest Whitfield coach Allen Tucker, whose team qualified 13 of 14 in its lineup for state while winning last weekend’s Area 7-4A traditional tourney.

“Focus on the first match and, if you win that one, then focus on the next.”

All five classifications are present in Duluth with individual and team reputations at stake over the next three days. Wrestling began Wednesday as Class 3A’s first round was completed, but local competitors won’t start until 8 a.m. today as both 4A and 5A take the mat for their opening rounds.

Admission is $10 per day to the tourney and, for the first time, ghsa.net will stream live coverage of Saturday’s 7 p.m. finals.

Northwest’s 13 qualifiers led the way among local schools, but Murray County has seven wrestlers competing in 5A. Dalton and Southeast, both 4A programs, have six and two qualifiers, respectively.

Among the area’s wrestlers with the highest hopes are four-time Area 7-4A champion Merle Bolton of Northwest. The senior 119-pounder has advanced to the semifinals each of the past two seasons but come up short before wrestling his way back for two third-place medals.

After winning his latest area crown at Dalton High last Saturday, Bolton — who was one victory short of placing at state as a freshman — talked about trying to finish his career with the biggest of victories.

“Third’s not bad,” Bolton said. “It’s still a big accomplishment. But with me winning four area titles, I accomplished one goal. The other one’s to win state.”

Tucker’s encouragement to Bolton, The Daily Citizen’s Wrestler of the Year the past two seasons, has been direct.

“I told him, ‘This is it,’” Tucker said. “‘Leave it on the mat, win, lose or draw.’”

Joining Bolton in Northwest’s quest for a strong finish in the team standings are Russell Royal (112 pounds), D.J. Bennett (125), David Lewis (130), Cody Wall (135), Kenny Michael (140), Rich Michael (145), Josh Lewis (152), Jermaine Hester (160), Steven Walkey (171), Ryan Banks (189), Chris Hopper (215) and Trey Selby (285).

All but Wall and Banks have been to state before, but Bolton is the only one of the group with a medal — the top six in each weight class are rewarded with that honor each season.

Still, Tucker believes the Bruins will benefit from the experience of simply competing at state last year, when five wrestlers were a win shy of placing. He also thinks his team — which finished among the top four teams at state duals this season and in 2007 — is off the radar and mostly overlooked around Georgia when it comes to pre-tourney buzz.

That’s just fine with the coach.

“I saw where someone was making their top 10 predictions and they didn’t have us in the top 20,” Tucker said. “I hope that’s the way people feel when they wrestle us. That’s usually when upsets happen at state, when good kids are looking ahead to the second or third round and they overlook a kid in the first. I really feel good about our chances of battling to be in the top three.”

After surviving the gauntlet presented by the Area 5-5A tournament last weekend, Murray County’s qualifiers can begin wrestling today with a bit of confidence not shared by everyone in the 5A brackets.

The Indians who advanced to state did so after finishing among the top four in an area in which the top teams have also been among the state’s best this season, with state duals runner-up Harrison, McEachern and Kennesaw Mountain all finding their way to the GaSports.com coaches top 10 poll at some point.

Of the Indians who qualified for state, Dalton Lane (112), Blake Rainey (152), Keith Bennett (160), Zach Baggett (171) and Jacob McConathy (285) all advanced to the area finals, though only Baggett claimed a championship. Murray County’s other qualifiers, Cody Adams (130) and Bryce Gibson (145), were third.

“We wrestle in a real tough area,” Murray County coach Chris Thornbury said. “But the fact that we got to go to state duals (last month) helped a lot, too. We’ve already seen a lot of the people we’ll run into, so we know what to expect. We’re just ready to get it going.”

Tradition might provide a little extra encouragement to Murray County, too. Since 1983 — when Thornbury, then a Murray County sophomore, earned his first of three state medals by finishing second — an Indians wrestler has placed at state every season save three.

But one of those vacant years was 2007, when the Indians took nine to state. This will be the last chance at a medal for many of the Indians, since all but Lane and McConathy are seniors, though Baggett already has one after finishing fifth in 2006.

“We’ve got a couple weight classes where we’ve got really tough draws, we’ve got a couple where we’ve got really good draws,” Thornbury said. “So it didn’t go one way or the other too extreme for us. The biggest thing is, at a state tournament you’re going to run into good people. You can’t get too consumed with brackets.”

For Dalton, Christian Washington (103), Jordan White (112), Henry Torres (119), Luis Barajas (130), Taylor Duckworth (171) and Asher Tchoua (189) all qualified, with Washington and White doing so on the strength of area championships and dominant performances in the finals at home. White, a junior who is competing in his third straight state tournament, finished fifth last year.

Southeast and first-year coach Neil Nichols will send out Andy Pichardo (135) and Tanner Phipps (140) among the area wrestlers trying to end an individual state title drought for Whitfield and Murray counties.

Although at least one local wrestler brought home a state title from 2001-05, no one climbed to the top either of the past two seasons. Northwest’s Nathan Lock and Murray County’s Jeremy Norman were the last local wrestlers to win state, taking the 125- and 145-pound titles, respectively, in Class 4A in 2005.

Two championship rounds and a round of wrestlebacks are scheduled today for 4A and 5A, with those classes also having two rounds of wrestlebacks on Friday, when the quarterfinals and semifinals for all five classes are also scheduled. Saturday’s wrestling will be all wrestlebacks until the 7 p.m. finals for all five classes.