Northwest Georgia's three participants in the GHSA Wrestling Dual State Championship each made it to the semifinals Friday in Macon.
Heritage, the top seed in Class AAA, defeated Chestatee 46-20 in the first round and rolled past Columbus in the quarterfinals, 53-18. Among Generals earning bonus wins in each of their matches were Michael Moore, Landon Reed, Andy Bratton and Madison Martin.
Heritage will face Locust Grove, a winner over Woodward Academy, in the semifinals this morning at 11. The other semifinal pits defending champion Gilmer County against West Laurens.
"We wrestled well, but I didn't think we were overly impressive," said Heritage coach Kenny Hill, whose team built big leads early in each match. "We won the ones we were supposed to win. The seeds are pretty much holding true so far. I like our chances against Locust Grove, and the Gilmer/West Laurens match will be a tough one."
Calhoun downed Jordan 58-24 in the Class AA field before pulling off an impressive rally to beat Appling County 44-32. Trailing 32-26, the Yellow Jackets received consecutive pins starting at the 170-pound class from Grant Fuller, Hunter Knight and Paul McKnight.
Calhoun, the Area 7 winner, will face 10-time champion and prohibitive favorite Jefferson in the semifinals.
Gordon Lee defeated Telfair County 54-16 in the Trojans' only action Friday in the eight-team Class A field. The Trojans, who received pins from Chase Wood, Dylan Skipper, Will Jacks, Jonathan Bettis, James Farmer, Dallas Alder and Corey Jewell, will face defending champion Bremen in the 11 a.m. semifinals.
Area champions Commerce and Holy Innocents' are the other two semifinalists.
"We bumped up in a lot of weight classes and I think we looked really good," Gordon Lee coach Brent Raby said. "From what I saw today, if we want it bad enough we can win it."