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DEL.ICIO.USGeorgia High School Wrestling: Pound For Pound recaps the state duals, lists new rankings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was a great weekend for wrestling in Macon, but not much surprised the staff at Pound for Pound. Collins Hill and Jefferson each rolled to another state duals title; Lafayette survived pesky Eastside to win their second straight, while Whitewater won Class AAAA and Bremen finally got its Class A championship. Despite the lack of the upset, the two days of great wrestling showed once again why this is one of the state’s top high school sporting events.
Not much is left to say about Collins Hill. The Eagles steamrolled to their second consecutive crown and third overall, handling two really good teams—Camden County and Pope—with relative ease in the semis and final. The team from Suwanee continues to stamp its legacy as perhaps the finest team in Georgia wrestling history and the national folks have taken notice: the Eagles jumped to No. 21 in Amateur Wrestling News latest Prep 40 poll.
Jefferson had no problem in its first Class AA duals tournament after winning seven consecutive Class A crowns. The Dragons made short work of Monticello, Blessed Trinity and Sonoraville before collecting six pins in a 49-19 victory over Lovett for the program’s eight consecutive state duals title.
“We’ve been waiting for it all season,” 160-pounder Jay Fowler said afterwards.
Speaking of waiting, former Class A mate Bremen was more than happy to see Jefferson move up a classification and the Blue Devils wasted no time ending a long drought at state duals. With a 29-24 win over Wesleyan, Bremen won its first duals title after finishing as a runner-up to Jefferson five times.
More waiting: after Eastside’s Michael Green tied the championship dual with Lafayette at 30-30, criteria was used to determine the Class AAA champion. A penalty point taken from Eastside and 112-pounder Cody Durden earlier in the match turned out to be the winning point in the Ramblers’ 31-30 victory, the school’s second consecutive duals title and third in three different classifications, a Georgia record. Ironically, it was Lafayette on the other end of a criteria loss in the 2007 Class AA final against Wesleyan.
“I’ve been on both sides of that; it’s heartbreaking,” said Lafayette coach Sam Forester.
Whitewater separated itself from the pack in Class AAAA and knocked off Dalton, 36-27 to win the school’s first wrestling state championship. The Wildcats used the quick pins of former state champions Chase Penland and Jacob Williamson to build a big lead against the upstart Catamounts and hung on for the title just two years after finishing as Class AAAA runner-up.
AJC Top 10 all-class rankings (last week’s ranking in parenthesis)
1. Collins Hill (1) — Eagles roll to second consecutive state duals title
2. Pope (5) — Nice run to the final included win over Union Grove
3. Union Grove (2) — Bounced back from semi final loss with two good wins to finish third
4. Jefferson (3) — Strong as ever, Dragons are now 25-0 in state duals
5. Lafayette (4) — It never seems to be easy for the Ramblers, but they again find a way
6. Camden County (9) — Wildcats finish fourth in difficult Class AAAAA
7. Centennial (6) — Injury to 189-pound Marcus Nabors hurt Knights chances against Camden in quarterfinals
8. Kennesaw Mountain (7) — Tough draw for Mustangs included a tight loss to Centennial
9. Henry County (8) — Better than the fourth-best team in Class AA, the Warhawks underachieved against both Lovett and Sonoraville
10. Eastside (10) — Great comeback in dual final against Lafayette, but bridesmaids once again
Where we’ll be
Pound for Pound heads to Habersham Central this weekend for the Sham Slam where Collins Hill, Jefferson and Lafayette will battle in one of the year’s top Traditional tournaments.
On the record
“This is bringing me back to when I started at Pope, the first three, four years. It was just me running the program; it was difficult. (Now) 14 years being at Pope (we’re) getting better every year (and) that’s the way you want your program to go.”
- Pope coach Jim Haskin before the Class AAAAA final against Collins Hill
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Pound For Pound
Comments
By Roper165
January 22, 2009 1:03 PM | Link to this
Man Kurt what do we have to do to get some love…4th?
By Mark Moore
January 22, 2009 1:20 PM | Link to this
The warhawks will be ready again come traditional time. Look for UG to overtake Pope.
By Mattwatcher
January 23, 2009 7:57 AM | Link to this
Henry County? Two time under achiever … still 4th for several valid reasons! What should be the criteria for a top ten team in the state? Many teams may claim under achiever status for their outcome. Jefferson number 2 NO DOUBT!
By wildcat
January 23, 2009 9:19 AM | Link to this
Kurt, good grief, you win a State Championship and can’t even break the top ten. Where is Whitewater. They man handled everyone. You’ve got more 3rd and 4th place teams in there than you do State Champions. Somethings wrong with this picture.
By Kurt Aschermann Jr.
January 23, 2009 2:02 PM | Link to this
Lee—
I just couldn’t put the No. 2 and 3 teams in Class AAAAA any lower than 2 and 3 in the poll; I think the top of Class AAAAA is that good. [Although I do think Jefferson is probably the only non-AAAAA team that could finish top-3 in the highest classification].
Wildcat and others—
Here’s how I feel about Class AAAA:
I simply don’t feel like Whitewater, or for that matter, any other AAAA team, is better than any of the teams in this top 10. Just because they won a state championship doesn’t mean they are one of the 10 best teams in the state. The 6 Class AAAAA teams in this poll would have no problem beating Whitewater in a dual; Jefferson and Lafayette would both win Class AAAA; Eastside has a better dual and traditional team and Henry’s traditional team is better than WW’s traditional team.
I mean, come on: at Riverwood, Whitewater barely beat Collins Hill’s JV team. Would any of these 10 teams lose to CH’s JV team? I say no.
If you were in Macon last weekend, you saw what I saw: Class AAAA is not a strong classification. Those are just facts. Whitewater took care of its business—it beat the four teams it had to beat to win a state title and I think Mickey Statham and Co. have done a great job. But winning a duals title does not automatically qualify you as one of the best 10 teams in the state; at least not in my poll. You want the top 4 finishers in each classification’s state duals as the top 4 teams in the poll, go to gasports.com.
And if I had to go 11-15…
By Kurt Aschermann Jr.
January 23, 2009 2:16 PM | Link to this
Just wanted to clarify one other thing—
I don’t want to make it seem like AAAA is the only weak classification; AAA, AA and A aren’t very strong classifications either. Still, AAA and AA’s top teams (Jefferson, Lovett, Lafayette and Eastside) are amongst the best 15 in the state.
Thanks for reading.