Wrestling: Dragons win area, produce 10 champions

WHILE IT’S possible that Jefferson has had more successful area tournaments in the past, this was still very prosperous — even by the Dragons’ lofty standards.

With 13 wrestlers reaching the area finals, the Jefferson wrestling team qualified everyone it carried to the traditional tournament for this week’s state sectionals.

“That’s pretty awesome,” Jefferson coach Doug Thurmond said.

The Dragons didn’t take a heavyweight to the traditional area tournament, which was hosted by Elbert County. Other than that, they dominated. Jefferson boasted 10 area champions and three runners-up as they won the 8-AA traditional title with 329.5 points.

“Of course we’d like 13 (area champions), but that was great,” Thurmond said. “We had some great matches in the finals. Some guys stepped up and did a wonderful job. We had a couple of our guys beat returning state champions. It don’t get much better than that.”

Banks County finished second with 220 points, while host Elbert County took third (204 points).

The very competition Jefferson bested at area, it will see again at the state level.

“The bad thing is that we’ve got to see them the next two weeks,” Thurmond said. “Not only do you do it once, you may be expected to do it two times or three times.”

Jefferson won the first six matches in the area finals with Chase Piperato (106 lb.), Kyle Kashuba (113 lb.), Josh Harris (120 lb.), Tyler Marranelli (126 lb.), Isaac Kelly (132 lb.) and Clay Richardson (138 lb.) all winning via points.

Marranelli and Kelly both beat returning state champions.

Cain Finch (152 lb.), Jake Sherman (160 lb.), Forrest Przybysz (182 lb.) and Aaron Anderson (220 lb.) rounded out the day by winning titles with pins.

“This is a very good year,” Thurmond said. “I won’t say our best year, but I will say a very good one.”

Jake Dollar (145 lb.), Jace McColskey (170 lb.) and Carson Newman (195 lb.) lost in the finals to finish as runners-up. Thurmond wished each of his wrestlers could have taken home first-place honors.

“I wasn’t disappointed in how they wrestled,” Thurmond said. “I was just disappointed for them.”

Following the state sectionals is the state tournament, Feb. 16-18, at Gwinnett Arena in the state tournament.

Jefferson is shooting for its 12th-straight traditional state title and 27th championship overall between state dual and traditional titles.