Ohatchee holds slim lead in 1A-4A wrestling; 14 local wrestlers to vie for individual state titles Saturday
HUNTSVILLE – Chris Findley and Andy Fulmer are anticipating a wild ride Saturday at the State Wrestling Championships.
Only 16 points separate the two sectional champions in the Class 1A-4A team race after Friday’s action at the VonBraun Center.
Findley’s North champion Ohatchee leads the race with 78 points. Fulmer’s South champion Weaver is currently third with 62 points, but has a lot of points on the table. Ashville is in between with 69 points and has four wrestlers in the championship round, the same as Ohatchee.
“We’re happy to be leading, but it’s nowhere near any kind of set in stone,” Findley said. “Weaver has 27 points possible still left on the board and they’re favored in a lot of them, so our work ain’t done.
“It’ll be absolutely wild. Between the three teams it can go any way. That’s what we all thought going into it. It could come down to two or three points, two or three team points.”
“It should be interesting,” Fulmer said.
Findley’s Indians are fully aware that every point counts. They lost their semifinal match in the State Duals Tournament on a deep tiebreaker.
Fulmer, meanwhile, felt “OK” about where his team stood at the end of the day. It didn’t start well for the Bearcats, but they rallied through the wrestle-backs to get back in contention.
“I feel OK,” he said. “I didn’t feel good about it this morning when we lost a couple matches I thought we should have won, but in the consolations the kids battled. The positive thing is we’ve still got five of our seven in and all my kids won a match at state and that hadn’t happened I don’t think since I’ve been here.”
Fourteen wrestlers from eight area schools will be competing for individual titles Saturday. The championship round gets underway at noon.
Ohatchee has the most among the locals – four: Malachi Goble (145), Matthew King (152), Troy Galloway (195) and Ethan Thrash (220). All four of their title bouts are rematches of last week’s sectional finals, but the Indians won only one of them (King).
Weaver and Cleburne County both have two in the 1A-4A bracket and Alexandria has two in the 5A-6A bracket.
Both of Weaver’s finalists – 160 Joshua Johannson (27-0) and 182 Devin Anderson (45-0) – and Alexandria’s 152 Jaden New (56-0) will take undefeated records into their title bouts.
AHSAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
TEAM SCORES: Ohatchee 78, Ashville 69, Weaver 62, Deshler 49, Cleburne County 47, Montgomery Catholic 39, Montevallo 38, Bayshore Christian 35, Dora 34, New Hope 34;
St. James 31, Westminster Christian 29, St. John Paul II 25, White Plains 24, Ranburne 22, Madison County 21, Saks 21, American Christian 18, Pleasant Valley 18, Cherokee County 16;
Piedmont 14, ASB 11, Oak Grove 10.5, Thomasville 10, Orange Beach 9, W.S. Neal 9, Bayside Academy 8, Prattville Christian 5, Reeltown 3, Susan Moore 2
SATURDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES
CLASS 1A-4A
106: Zeke Dernlan, Bayshore Christian (32-4) vs. Adrian Waugh, New Hope (21-5)
113: Shamar Heard, Cleburne County (39-2) vs. Gavin Kilgore, White Plains (18-2)
120: Logan Hartson, St. James (40-3) vs. Austen Mayfield, Cleburne County (46-7)
126: Marcus Wright, Westminster Christian (16-1) vs. Gavin Monk, Montevallo (55-2)
132: Jack Von Eschenbach, St. John Paul II (52-4) vs. Joseph Rodriguez, Montgomery Catholic (18-4)
138: Tyler Ebner, Ashville (34-9) vs. David Herrick, Cherokee County (41-10)
145: River Scruggs, ACA (32-2) vs. Malachi Goble, Ohatchee (21-3)
152: Matthew King, Ohatchee (24-2) vs. Brenan Steder, Westminster Christian (21-7)
160: Joshua Johannson, Weaver (27-0) vs. Shawn Sponsler, Montgomery Catholic (22-6)
170: Jonathan Foster, Dora (44-9) vs. Devon Jeffreys, Deshler (22-5)
182: Devin Anderson, Weaver (45-0) vs. Dylan Harris, Ashville (34-3)
195: Mason Ellis, Madison County (27-2) vs. Troy Galloway, Ohatchee (32-2)
220: Layden Olson, Ashville (38-7) vs. Brock Thrash, Ohatchee (18-3)
285: Carson Hall, Ranburne (43-1) vs. Mason Wilson, Ashville (41-3)
CLASS 5A-6A
TEAM SCORES (Top 10): Mortimer Jordan 114.5, Arab 111, Gardendale 99.5, McAdory 96.5, Jasper 79, Moody 79, Scottsboro 77, Homewood 76.5, Fort Payne 55.5, Mountain Brook 54.
13. Alexandria 48; T-19. Southside 30; T-30. Oxford 14.
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES
(Local wrestlers)
106: Preston Jones, Alexandria (50-1) vs. Caleb Wright, Mortimer Jordan (48-6)
152: Jaden New, Alexandria (56-0) vs. Cole Sykes, Shelby County (71-1)
285: Jerrod Harden, Southside (40-5) vs. Jayden Joseph, Northridge (41-2) [*** read more]
