There may not have been a lot of talk surrounding the Northwest Whitfield and Sonoraville wrestling teams entering the GHSA Duals Championships, but after Friday the two had the Macon Centreplex buzzing.
Northwest shocked No. 3 seed North Hall, 33-32, in Friday morning's quarterfinal round and used a strong showing in the middle weights to edge Carrollton 37-34 and reach today's Class AAAA championship round.
The Bruins will face familiar foe Gilmer County a week after the two faced off for the Area 7-AAAA championship. The Bobcats rolled past Troup County, 56-12, and No. 4 seed Marist, 46-18, on Friday.
Sonoraville, the unheralded Area 3-AAA champion, opened Friday with a 39-22 upset of No. 2 seed Banks County before knocking off Oconee County, 34-29, in the semifinal round.
Also Friday, Gordon Lee split a pair of matches, losing its Class AA opener to Bremen, 54-20, but posting a 45-26 win over Fitzgerald in the consolation round. The Trojans will face Area 3 champion Lovett in today's consolation semifinal round.
Trion won its Class A opener, 51-20 over Eagle's Landing Christian Academy, but lost 66-4 to top-ranked Commerce in the semifinals. The Bulldogs will face St. Francis in the consolation semifinals.
For Northwest Whitfield, the defining moment of the day was Jordan Pittman's comeback win at 195 pounds against North Hall. Down 5-4 with 13 seconds left in the match's final bout and Northwest trailing by two, he managed to get a reversal to send the Bruins to the semifinals.
"The kid was riding him and had already been hit with stalling, but Jordan somehow hit him with the reversal and the whole bench exploded," Northwest coach Allen Tucker said. "We were the last match going in that round, and everybody was watching. The place went crazy."
The Bruins had pins from Michael Robles, Dustin Palmer, Aaron Carter and Austin Taylor against North Hall. They built a 37-16 lead on Carrollton, which had earlier upset No. 2 seed West Laurens, on the strength of pins from Bryan Gembe, Blake Hayes, Jonathan Bergman, Taylor and Garrett Grey to turn what was a 12-12 match into a comfortable lead.
The Bruins will face a Gilmer team that Bobcats coach Sam Snider said was at its best Friday. The Bobcats had four pins, two technical falls and three major decisions in the easy win over Troup, but it was against Marist where they really shone. Starting at 285 pounds, Levi Seabolt recorded a pin to start a run of nine consecutive wins as Gilmer built a stunning 40-0 lead.
"Tonight people saw the complete Gilmer team, which was on a mission," Snider said. "The Marist team was an impressive group of high-character kids who wrestled very hard. It was a ton of fun to see the guys put it all together, and they will have to keep it up tomorrow against a tough Northwest Whitfield team."
Sonoraville's win over Banks County was due in large part to the Firebirds staying off their backs. They did not give up a pin, keeping the match close until they put together a 20-3 burst beginning with 138-pound Austin Tillman's technical fall. Morgan Holt, Chris Gonzalez and Ryan Farist had consecutive major decisions in the run.
"A lot of our younger wrestlers stepped up, and even if they lost they didn't get pinned," Sonoraville co-coach Brandon Hufstetler said. "Banks was counting on getting those bonus points. When we got to Austin Tillman and the match was close, we knew we were in good shape."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.