Lee County Wrestling headed to Elite Eight

After missing the GHSA State Duals last year, the Lee County wrestling team is back as one of the final eight teams bidding for a state title.

The Trojans dominated two Class AAAAAA Prelim Duals this past Saturday at the LCHS gym to earn a spot in the State Elite Eight Duals for the first time since 2021. Lee County travels to Gainesville, north of Atlanta, for the Elite Eight Tournament this Saturday.

“It’s awesome,” Lee County head wrestling coach Chris Morton said. “I am proud of the guys. All these guys have worked so hard all season long and they deserve it. They have been doing a great job all year. I am looking forward (to state Elite Eight). We have a lot of little things we have to work on (in practice) and hopefully that will help us out.”

Lee County will face North Forsyth in the opening round of the eight-team event. The Trojans face either Glynn Academy or Woodward Academy in their second match, either in the winners’ bracket or consolation bracket depending on how they fare in the opener. The other seven teams that qualified are Creekview, Glynn Academy, Lassiter, North Forsyth, Newman, South Effingham and Woodward Academy.

A new AAAAAA champion will be crowned as two-time state champ Buford moved up a classification following reclassification.

All the teams seek three straight wins without a loss to earn the state title. A team that goes 2-1 claims state runner-up, while the team that finishes 3-1 captures third place and a 2-2 performance means fourth-place.

Lee County finished 1-2 in its last appearance in 2021 with both losses coming late to Creekview (39-22) and Alexander (33-28).

Morton said he was expecting two tough battles at this past Saturday’s Prelim Duals.

His Trojan wrestlers, though, had different plans.

Winning 20 of 28 individual matches, highlighted by 13 pinfalls, the Trojans rolled to two convincing wins, beating Etowah 50-23 and Pope 52-24.

“The point swings were way higher than what people predicted and were saying in really both matches,” Morton said, indicating how people thought there would be close matches. “I thought Pope would have bought more bang coming in there, but I think we separated ourselves early.”

The meeting against Pope for the Elite Eight spot started at 165 and the Trojans won eight of the first nine matches to build an insurmountable 45-6 lead and demoralize the Greyhounds.

Lee County senior Aiden Chilson opened the dual with a pin over Travis Collins to give the Trojans a 6-0 lead. Pope’s Mark Mandt, a state qualifier last year, evened the score with a pin over Lee County senior Carter Miller at 175.

The match then swung Lee County’s way when junior Jaylen Williams, a second-year wrestler, earned a pin over Pope’s Matheus Lake in the 190-weight class, giving the Trojans a 12-6 lead and momentum in the dual.

“Jaylen Williams, our 190, stuck the Pope kid, which was huge for us,” Morton said. “We weren’t expecting that. He stuck him in the third period.”

Trojan sophomores Weston Bryan and Dominik Vigil followed with pins in the 215 and 285 classes over Mireca Gheut and Chris Green, boosting the Trojan lead to 24-6 as the match flipped to the lightweights.

The Trojans kept the momentum going as sophomore Karol Olalde (106) and junior Alex Tabb (113) earned pins over Garrett Michaels and Owen Ballew before freshman Nathan Piercey (120) claimed a 4-2 decision over Fletcher King and sophomore Tanner Musgrove pinned Sam Wilhelm to finish the stretch of eight wins in the first nine matches.

The teams alternated winning the final five matches. Pope’s Tyler Gornall pinned Eason (Dallas) Hunter at 132 before Trojan senior Riley Brewer captured a 9-0 decision at 138 over Pope’s Jackson Guy. Pope’s Paul Childs won by pin at 144 over LCHS junior Isaiah Dozier and the Greyhounds’ Aidan Karpinski, a third-place state finisher last year, pinned Trojan senior Davis Chatman at 157. Lee County’s sophomore Noah Anderson won an 11-4 decision at 150 over Domini Landry.

In the first dual against Etowah, the Trojans overcame a slow start as the Eagles won three of the first four matches, but Lee County wrestlers forced two decisions instead of giving up pins and Etowah only grabbed a 13-5 lead instead of a potential 18-5 margin.

Kelvin Reyes beat Chatman 4-3 at 157, Joseph Lago beat Miller 13-0 at 175 and Justin Dawson-Brown pinned Williams at 190. Lee County’s Chilson earned a 15-0 tech fall win in the sequence.

The match turned toward the Trojans’ strength — the two upper weights and the lightweights — and Lee County won five straight matches — four by pins and one forfeit — to build a 35-13 lead. Bryan beat Luke Lindberg at 215, Vigil defeated Terry Pitts at 285, Olalde downed Hilkiah Haffner at 106 and Tabb beat Gabriel Ramsey at 113 for the pins. Piercey (120) received the forfeit.

After Etowah’s Daniel McEntyre pinned Lee County’s Musgrove at 126, the Trojans won the next three to secure the team win and advance to face Pope. Hunter won by a forfeit at 132 before Brewer pinned Jordyn Baldwin at 138 and Dozier earned a 6-0 decision at 144.

The dual ended with the Eagles’ Zemheir Baldwin winning 9-1 over Lee County’s Anderson.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]