JEFFERSON coach Doug Thurmond didn’t want to be greedy. In fact, he was a very happy man upon totalling up all his team’s accomplishments.
With nine state finalists, two individual champions and a 12th consecutive traditional state title to boot, the Dragons’ performance at the state tournament at Gwinnett Arena was vintage Jefferson.
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His only regret was that there weren’t more Dragons standing at the top of the medalist podium Saturday night.
“To have nine in the finals is unbelievable,” Thurmond said. “But also it’s bittersweet that we didn’t have more firsts. But you can’t be greedy.”
While that was the bitter part, this was the sweet part for Jefferson: a landslide team win.
The Dragons, who finished with 232 points in the three-day tournament, beat second-place Greater Atlanta Christian by 144 points to extended a state-title streak started back in 2001.
“Twelve in a row is awesome,” Thurmond said. “It’s great. The kids, they didn’t want to break the chain, and they didn’t.”
Forrest Przybysz (182 lb.) won his third career title by beating Morgan County’s Austin Ross 9-2, and Tyler Marinelli (126 lb.) earned his first championship with a 4-2 overtime win over Elbert County’s Braxton Owens, a reigning state champion. Those individual titles put the finishing touches on yet another Dragon title.
The program has now won 27 state championships between duals and traditionals combined. Twenty-three of those have come since 2001.
“If there’s one thing that doesn’t get old, it’s winning state championships,” Przybysz said. “It doesn’t get redundant. It really doesn’t.”
An anticipated 182-lb. finals match between Przybysz and Toombs County’s Kalin Willhite never materialized.
Przybysz rallied to beat Willhite 6-4 the previous week at the state sectionals but Willhite was upset by Ross in the second round Friday in Gwinnett.
Przybysz was as surprised as anyone not to see Willhite in the finals.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said. “That’s what happened.”
Przybysz, who ranks 19th nationally in his weight class, took care of business against Ross in the 182 finals.
“I wrestled good,” said Przybysz, who is preparing for a national tournament in Philadelphia in March. “I did everything I planned on doing. Yeah, I could have wrestled better but winning was my first goal.”
Thurmond said Przybysz, who will wrestle collegiately at Navy, continues to impress.
“Forrest is just Forrest,” Thurmond said. “He’s just a great kid.”
Marinelli pulled off a third victory in as many weeks over Elbert County’s Owens to win his title. He picked up two points in overtime to break a 2-2 tie.
“Tyler’s win was great,” Thurmond said. “He beat a state champion. That’s the third time in three weeks he’s where he had to beat him to be (number) one. This was the big one. It’s hard to beat somebody three times in a row that’s a state champion.”
Others came close.
Chase Piperato (106 lb.), Kyle Kashua (113 lb.), Isaac Kelly (132 lb.), Clay Richardson (138 lb.), Jack Dollar (145 lb.), Cain Finch (152 lb.) and Aaron Anderson (220-lb.) reached the finals but lost. Two others placed, Josh Harris (sixth, 120 lb.) and Jake Sherman (third, 160 lb.).
Thurmond stressed how proud he was of each of his wrestlers.
“Lord knows there’s no shame in being second,” he said. “But that’s not what they work for. They work hard to try to be (number) one, so it hurts as a coach because, of course, we want them to do well. But, on the other hand, having nine guys to be in the finals, my gosh, that’s awesome. So I was really proud of that, and I was really proud of them.”
It was yet another largely successful year in the Dragons’ storied program, which loses five seniors next year.
Jefferson won two southeastern tournaments, finished 10th in the toughest dual tournament in the U.S. and was ranked nationally during the course of the season.
The Dragons also captured their 11th consecutive duals state title in January before their dominating performance over the weekend at Gwinnett.
“They did win a team state championship in duals and in traditional and we had nine finalists,” Thurmond said. “That’s a great season. A great season.”
