The eight Madison County wrestlers who qualified for the East Sectional tournament have advanced directly to the state tournament at the Gwinnett Arena — with an assist from Mother Nature, of course.
Max Nash (112-lb.), Cody Phillips (119-lb.), Colton Phillips (125-lb.), Isaac Ruiz (145-lb.), Kyle Bates (152-lb.), Kyle Gordon (189-lb.), Tyler Adams (215-lb.) and Matt Dove (285-lb.) started competition at an expanded state tournament today (Thursday) since the state sectionals — which served as a state qualifier — were scrapped due to winter weather.
“We feel like we’ve got a few guys with a legitimate shot to come through and place with the people that they’ve wrestled,” Madison County coach Richie Houston said.
Houston notes that the Red Raiders for the second time this year have a two-week break due to weather cancellations.
“We should be healed up and ready to go,” Houston said.
The now much-larger state tournament runs until Saturday night.
The sectionals were implemented last year as an extra step to qualify for the state tournament. The top 32 wrestlers throughout the state in each weight class advanced to the sectionals, where the field was whittled down to the top eight.
Those eight would advance to the Gwinnett Arena.
But the weekend snowstorm forced the postponement of Friday and Saturday’s state sectional tournament. The event was rescheduled for Monday and Tuesday, but the threat of winter weather (which never materialized) led to its cancellation altogether.
Thus, the GHSA had to rearrange the entire state tournament format with 32-man brackets instead of eight-man versions.
While Houston is happy that all eight of his sectional qualifiers will wrestle at state, he does like the added step of the sectionals. Having just eight state qualifiers per weight class instead of 32 enhances the reputation of Georgia High School wrestling, Houston explained, especially for kids wanting to wrestle at the next level.
“As far as college scouts looking at Georgia kids, the tougher it is to place and get to the state tournament, kind of lends a little creditability to Georgia wrestling,” he said.
But this year’s change isn’t all bad.
With just one senior out of the group of eight state qualifiers, Red Raiders will return a host of wrestlers next year with Gwinnett Arena experience.
“We lose one guy, so next year that’s kind of something to build on that we’ll have seven state qualifiers back,” Houston said. “So for a selfish reason that’s a good thing.”
Now, the question is how many of that group will be state placers.
The first two rounds of the state tournament were scheduled for today (Thursday) on 12 mats at the Gwinnett Arena.
The first round is single elimination, but wrestlers losing in the second round will continue in the “wrestle backs.”
The quarterfinals and semifinals are Friday. The finals begin Saturday at 5 p.m. when all 14 weightclass champions in each classification will be crowned.
“We’ve just been trying to pound into our guys, ‘confidence,’” Houston said. “A lot of them don’t have the confidence because they never have placed. I think if they wrestle knowing that they can place, I think we’ve got a few guys that can place.”
