Mat season begins for prep teams
The Heritage Generals swept a tri-match at Pickens last Tuesday, hammering Dawson County, 64-9, before getting past the host Dragons, 39-36, to improve to 6-1 in dual meets this season.
Kaden Taylor (106 pounds), Tate Thomas (113), Victor Johnson (144) and Jaden Walker (150) each went 2-0 with two pins. Skylar Grant (175) was 2-0 with one pin, while Dax Akers (190) and Evan Wingrove (215) were each 2-0 with no pins.
Matthew Nerren (126), Will Smith (132), Josh Butler (157) and Alex Grayson (165) were all 1-1, while Nerren and Butler each had one pin.
Andy Garcia (120) and Landon Albright (138) also wrestled for the Generals, who had to give up forfeits at 285.
Tyler Ward and Will Love were both 1-0 in JV matches, while Gavin Davis was 1-1 with one pin.
LFO DEFEATS SOUTHEAST
The Warriors rolled out the welcome mats for Southeast Whitfield on Thursday and then proceeded to roll up the Raiders, 42-36, to claim their first dual meet victory of the season.
Nick Kapherr (144 pounds), Tamorris Johnson (157), Brodi Rizzo (165), Blake Rizzo (190) and Christian Snyder (215) picked up pins for the Warriors (1-5), while Spenser Sandin (106) and Zach Bailey (113) earned wins by forfeit.
GORDON LEE WINS TWICE
The Trojans began their season on a good note by sweeping a pair of matches on Thursday night at Calhoun High School, taking down the Class 5A Jackets, 30-29, before beating Class 4A Cedartown, 45-30.
Layne Vaughn (165 pounds) and Timy Duke (215) each went 2-0 for Gordon Lee, while Landon Brown (132), Gabe Lowe (285) and Griffin Moore (285) each went 1-0. Avery Bloodworth (157) and Harrison Walker (190) were both 1-1.
RINGGOLD, LFO FINISH TOP FIVE IN RINGGOLD
The Rockmart Yellow Jackets, last year’s Class 3A state duals champion, showed on Saturday that they might be one of the teams to beat in Class 2A this season as they claimed seven individual titles in winning the Ringgold Classic.
Rockmart finished with 220.5 points, while the host Tigers were second with 142.5 points. Trion (88) was third and Bremen (87) was fourth, while LFO (63), Notre Dame (50) and Darlington (9) rounded out the team standings.
Ringgold had two champions. Price Pennington defeated Hagen Sharp of Rockmart by pin in the second period (2:38) of the finals at 126 pounds, while Tristan Busch took the 144-pound crown with a
9-6 victory over Trion’s Carter Jackson.
Runner-up finishers for the Tigers included Nolan Rohrer (120), Hudson Moss (138), Jaxon Delgado (150), Braden Raby (157), Brent Lee Raby (190) and Travis Talley (285).
Zane Rohrer (113), Lathan Spencer (132) and Daniel Lopez (215) were all fourth for Ringgold.
LFO’s lone champion was Brodi Rizzo,
who went 2-0 to win a round-robin bracket at 165 pounds. He pinned Bremen’s Zach Morgan in 23 seconds before a 4:31 fall against Rockmart’s Gage Warren.
Kapherr (144) and Snyder (215) were third for the Warriors, while Keegan Kinsey (150) and Blake Rizzo (190) both took fourth.
WALKER COUNTY WRESTLERS TESTED IN ROAD MATCHES
The Ridgeland Panthers and the LaFayette Ramblers opened wrestling season at the Bruin Duals at Northwest Whitfield High School on Saturday with both squads
posting 2-3 records on the day.
LaFayette defeated Ridgeland, 48-34, and handled Gordon Central, 66-12, but fell to Murray County, 39-33, Northwest, 45-28, and North Murray, 43-36.
Individual results for the Ramblers were not available as of press time.
In addition to the loss to LaFayette, Ridgeland was beaten by North Murray, 60-21, and Northwest, 38-30, but defeated Murray County, 39-36, and Gordon Central, 43-42. The Panthers’ tiebreaking point came on criteria.
Aiden Barber and William Tredy both were 5-0 for Ridgeland. Nick Gravitt was 4-1 and
Branson Dean went 3-1, while Pedro Morales and Levi Millsaps both finished 3-2.
Meanwhile, in Floyd County, Gordon Lee fell to 3-4 on the season after going 1-4 at the Coosa Duals.
The Trojans were beaten by Huntsville (Ala.), 63-12, and suffered narrow losses to Armuchee (42-36), Paulding County (45-36) and Cartersville (40-36), while their only win came against Coahulla Creek (42-36).
Vaughn went unbeaten (5-0) at 165 pounds, while Duke (215) and Lowe (285) were both 4-1. Going 3-2 on the day were Bloodworth (157), Kaden Ellis (138/144) and Mason Dougherty (175).