Lee County wrestlers fall at state duals

Lee County’s wrestling team couldn’t overcome woes in the middle weight divisions Saturday at the GHSA Class AAAAAAA State Duals in Gainesville.

The Trojans fell to North Forsyth 40-28 and to Glynn Academy 46-28 to go two and out at the tournament. North Forsyth finished as the state runner-up and Glynn Academy finished fourth.

In the opening dual against North Forsyth, the Trojans got off to a strong start with wins in three of the first five individual matches from the 106-weight class through the 132-pound division for a 15-10 advantage.

However, Lee County lost the next five weight classes from 138 to 165 and fell behind 34-15. While the Trojans won three of the last four matches, it was not enough to overtake the Raiders.

Karol Olalde (106 weight class), Riley Brewer (132) and Weston Bryan (215) earned wins by pinfalls for the Trojans with Brewer earning his victory in the first period.

Alex Tabb (113) took a 6-2 decision in his match, Aiden Chilson (175) rolled to a 17-2 major decision win and Dominik Vigil (285) captured a 3-0 victory.

The story was nearly similar for LCHS in the consolation match against Glynn Academy. After splitting the first four matches through 132 pounds, Lee County lost three straight to fall behind 29-9. Two straight wins (a major decision and a pinfall) cut the deficit to 10, but the Trojans lost five of the last seven matches to finish the dual.

Lee County lost seven of the 14 matches to Glynn Academy by pinfall and another on a tech fall decision (15 or more point advantage). The Trojans, on the other hand, had only four pins and no tech falls among its six wins.

Like they did in the first match, Olalde, Tabb, Brewer, Chilson and Bryan won in the second match. The five wrestlers went 10-0 on the day, but the rest of the Lee County grapplers finished just 2-16.

Olalde won a 2-0 decision, Tabb earned a third-period pin, Brewer took a 9-6 decision, Chilson claimed a first-period pin (36 seconds) and Bryan also won on a first-period pin (57 seconds).

Davis Chatman (157) won the other match with an 11-1 major decision.

The Trojans now begin preparing to the individual traditional tournament postseason, which starts with the area tournament on Feb. 3-4 at Veterans High School, followed by the section tournament (Feb. 11-12) at Johns Creek High School near Atlanta and finally the state tournament (Feb. 16-17) in Macon.

Staff Photo: Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]