Sonoraville Wrestling wins on Senior Night
Sonoraville tops Calhoun 56-21 in their varsity wrestling meet.
MBaron@CalhounTimes.com
The Sonoraville Phoenix Wrestling team secured a 56-21 senior night victory on the home mat over the Calhoun Yellow Jackets in the Gordon County Championships Wednesday. On the middle school level, Calhoun topped Red Bud 50-49.
“We started this last year to try and make a Gordon County championship,” Phoenix Wrestling head coach Randy Steward said. “The goal, to me, was let’s try and help wrestling in Gordon County. We had a great crowd tonight which is awesome and then we thought let’s get the middle schools involved.”
“Our goal coming into tonight was just to wrestle better and to improve on our score,” Calhoun Wrestling head coach Michael Herndon said. “Our goal is to improve against (Sonoraville) every time. They are a really, really good team, two-time defending state champions, so they’re a good measure of how well we’re doing.”
The Phoenix honored eight seniors in a pre-match ceremony. Sonoraville’s eight seniors are: Hector Arbos, Brandon Bristol, Charlie Brown, Tyler Capps, Jayce Derryberry, Zakk Ferguson, Jon Smith and Allen Stone.
“I wear my emotions on my sleeve,” Steward said. “I didn’t start crying until right towards the end (of the pregame ceremony). Just looking out over all of them. My time is coming to an end with these guys and that’s going to be real hard on me.”
Steward, in his fourth year at Sonoraville, has propelled the Phoenix to back-to-back state titles.
“I guess I am, essentially, a senior with them,” Steward said. “This is a group that was here from the beginning with me and they’ve accomplished a ton of really cool things. Hopefully they’re not done (and) finish their careers out on top is the goal.”
The Sonoraville seniors have compiled 431 individual wins, a 75-7 dual meet record and 13 team tournament championships.
On the flip side, the Yellow Jackets took home four match wins. Brody Parker (106 weight class), Armando Monroy (120 weight class) and Jason Vicente (182 weight class) all won by pins. Haydin Harris (170 weight class) won 6-5.
“I think our kids went out and fought this time,” Herndon said. “I think earlier in the year, I think they went out there and they were beat before they stepped on the mat. Today, I think they really went out there, they worked hard and they really got after it and I was proud to see that.”
After the varsity matches had ended, Calhoun’s Brandon Weathers closed out the evening with a win for the junior varsity side.
WRESTLING,
Sonoraville senior wide receiver Ben Burns represented the school in the second-team offensive category. Calhoun senior quarterback Jake Morrow, senior wide receiver Grant Gilmer and senior kicker Eduardo Fajardo were selected for second-team offensive distinction.
Second-team defense featured four Calhoun and three Sonoraville football players. For Calhoun: senior defensive lineman Kendez Griffin, junior defensive lineman Brett Garland, senior linebacker Reece Poe and junior defensive back Will Seamons. For Sonoraville: senior linebacker