Ingram, Jarvis finish runner-up at state
Both LaFayette’s Cole Ingram and Gordon Lee’s Braden Jarvis had to settle for runner-up medals at the GHSA state wrestling tournament on Saturday in Macon.
Wrestling in the 170-pound final in Class AAAA, Ingram couldn’t get anything going against St. Pius X’s Jack Marsh, who scored an early takedown and controlled the majority of the action in all three periods. Ingram’s lone point came on an escape. He began his weekend with a 17-2 technical fall over White County’s Josh Jenkins before a 13-4 major decision against Burke County’s Jalen Odum in the quarterfinals. He needed a 2-1 victory in an ultimate tiebreaker to beat Cross Creek’s Joel Faglier in the semis.
It was the second straight state finals appearance for the Ramblers’ lone senior, who ended the year with a 45-7 record.
“The kid was tough,” LaFayette head coach Joe Franks said of Marsh. “He was very good on top and good on his feet. Cole’s been battling a shoulder injury and sickness the last three weeks, so we’re just really proud of what he’s done.
“He’s wrestled some really good kids in some really tough matches and stuck with them all. We’re really going to miss him next year.”
Tyler Beard went on to place sixth for LaFayette at 160 pounds, while Cody Deal failed to make the podium after losing in the third round of the consolation brackets on Friday. LaFayette finished 17th in the final team standings for Class AAAA. Jarvis, who was also in his second straight state finals match, ran into some terrible luck in his highly-anticipated match against Commerce’s Chase Forrester.
The Gordon Lee junior won his first two matches of the weekend, 6-0 over Noah Cunard of Mt. De Sales, and 10-5 over Grant Marshall of Wesleyan.
But less than a minute into the finals match, Jarvis suffered a high ankle sprain after the two wrestlers went out of bounds after locking up.
Jarvis, who was looked at by trainers matside, exhausted all but a few seconds of his allowed five-minute injury time before attempting to get back in the match. However, after the two locked up and once more wrestled past the edge of the circle, Jarvis grabbed his ankle in pain and was forced to default the match just 54 seconds into the bout.
His foot and ankle were heavily wrapped and taped during the awards ceremony later in the night.
“The good news is that he still has another year to wrestle,” Gordon Lee head coach Jason Mull said. “We just hate that it happened at all because the kid worked really hard all year.
“Regardless, he still had a really good season. Up until tonight, he was 491. He had an extremely good season. I just hate that it ended that way.”
Hunter Burnette (106), Tucker Miller (113) and Jarrett Lassetter (160) all finished fourth for the Trojans. Zach Murdock (152) and Caleb Vines (195) each placed fifth, while Jasper Wilson (120) and Avery Geer (126) failed to make the podium.
Gordon Lee tied Turner County for sixth place in Class A with 75 points.