CALHOUN, Ga. - Ringgold's wrestling team ended a seven-year state duals drought Saturday in dominating fashion.
The Tigers rolled to the Area 6-AAA duals title at Sonoraville High School, capping their run with a 65-17 championship win over Coahulla Creek, to earn a trip to this week's state duals in Macon.
"It's been a little while, but the kids have been working real hard," Ringgold coach David Moss said. "They're young and they keep getting better. I hope they keep doing that until the second week of February (when the state tradtional tournament is held).
"Today, as they've done all year long, our guys came through when most people in the gym didn't think they could win. We've got one kid on our team that has more than one year of high school experience."
Ringgold's closest match at the duals came in the semifinals against Calhoun, a 50-27 win for the Tigers. The Yellow Jackets, though, rallied out of the consolation bracket to earn the area's other state berth in dramatic fashion.
After beginning the day with a one-point win over Sonoraville and losing to Ringgold, Calhoun held off Adairsville 37-33 to set up a rematch against Sonoraville, last year's area champion. The Phoenix held a seemingly insurmountable 18-point lead with three individual bouts remaining, but Calhoun got consecutive pins from William Craig, Jason Fuller and Eduardo Aguilar to tie the score.
The Jackets were declared the winner on the third tiebreaker criteria.
"Down 18 points with three matches left, we had to have those three pins," Calhoun coach Michael Herndon said. "J.C. Fuller came up huge. Their kid pinned him earlier, but he came through when we had to have it."
Fuller did it again in the dual with Coahulla Creek to determine a "true" runner-up and the second spot for state. Calhoun built a 32-12 lead on the surprising Colts after Christian East's pin at 160, but Coahulla Creek recorded consecutive pins from Chuy Rodriguez, Daniel Lopez and Zion Hester to pull within six points with two bouts remaining.
At 220, the action was furious from the start and Coahulla Creek's Jacob Elrod briefly put Fuller on his back, but Fuller hit a quick reversal and caught Elrod by surprise. Seconds later, he recorded the pin that clinched the state berth.
"I don't know what happened against Coahulla," Herndon said. "We were up big and they came back before J.C. came up big again to clinch it. We tend to come together at the area tournament, and I'm so proud of them. That's five tough matches in one day, and I couldn't be prouder of them."
In Ringgold's championship romp against Coahulla Creek, heavyweight Enrique Maravilla and 106-pound Tanner Stone started things with pins and, following the Colts' Levi Kinsey winning by technical fall for five team points, the Tigers reeled off four consecutive wins - pins by Devin Bomar, Holden Moss and Joey Collins and a tech fall by Will Broom - to essentially sew up the title.
"They don't give trophies for this, but we're going to go buy one - a real big one," Moss said.
' In other area duals, Trion lost 40-28 to Mt. Zion-Carroll in the championship round of the 3-A duals, with each team advancing to Macon, while Gordon Lee finished third in the 3-AA duals at Lovett, where the host and Armuchee finished first and second to earn the two state berths.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.