CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — Gordon Lee High School’s wrestling team was the No. 1 seed in Georgia’s Area 3-AA dual championships and was leading by four team points during the final bout of the championship match Saturday on its home mat. All of a sudden, instead of hoisting the trophy, the Trojans found themselves in the match for second place.
The Lovett School’s Brooks Layson cradled his opponent to secure a third-period pin and vault his team to a 34-32 victory Saturday evening.
Gordon Lee then torched Armuchee 57-21 in a quick match for true second.
“I feel pretty pumped,” Lovett coach Billy Maldonado said. “It was intense. You know, you’re wrestling the No. 1 seed in their house, so it’s a culmination of every second, every period, every practice.”
Before Layson’s 170-pound match, the Lions had not seen the lead since they were up 13-10 after the 106-pounders wrestled nine bouts earlier. Their largest lead was 13-4 after James Harrison took a 3-1 decision at 285 pounds, but the Trojans answered, bulldozing their way out front.
Gordon Lee won five straight matches, including consecutive pins within 30 seconds by Chase Weber and Nick Wilson and a come-from-behind 7-5 win by Zack Murdock at 126 to seize a 28-13 lead.
“We knew they had some studs coming up, but we just had to weather that storm to get to our studs,” Maldonado said.
Lovett evened the score by winning the next three bouts, one of which was a narrow 8-6 decision as Peyton Bell fended off Braden Jarvis’ furious comeback at 145.
“There were a lot of moments that could have made the difference,” Trojans coach Brent Raby said. “Matchups are key, and our guys learned some lessons today. We wrestled tough, and it was a hard-fought dual.”
Sydny Rhinehart put Gordon Lee up 32-28 with a major decision ahead of Layson’s pin that sent his team and their fans into a frenzy.
“It was a great atmosphere and they brought a good crowd,” Raby said. “I think they had almost as many here as we did, so (the crowd) was almost the most fun part of the dual.”
There were 12 pins in the 14 individual matchups between Gordon Lee and Armuchee, and the Trojans won nine of those pins.
“I feel we’re as good as anybody in the state. We just had to qualify,” Raby said. “Hopefully next week is when we peak in duals, and I’m looking forward to it.”
In the Area 7-AAAA tournament at Gilmer County, the top-ranked hosts and Northwest Whitfield advanced to next week’s state championships.
Gilmer’s Bobcats downed Northwest 46-20 in the title match after building a 30-4 lead through six bouts. The Bruins, who got pins from Jacob Splawn (106 pounds) and Justin Palmer (120) and major decisions from Austin Taylor (160) and Blake Hayes (126), will make their first trip to the state tournament in six seasons.
Northwest earlier defeated Pickens County and Heritage, which proved to be key when the Generals rallied from a 36-24 deficit to down Cartersville 38-24. Because the Bruins had defeated Heritage earlier, there was not a match for second place.
“The kids wrestled hard, but Gilmer is just good and they’re used to winning,” Northwest coach Alan Tucker said. “When you make a mistake, you pay for it. It was nice to see Heritage fight back like that because wrestling another match would have been tough. Still, I like our chances in Macon because we wrestled well against Gilmer and they are the team to beat.”
Mount Zion and Trion will represent Area 3-A in Macon. Mount Zion won the title over the Bulldogs, 32-27. In Area 6-AAA, Sonoraville was the champion at Murray County, with neighboring rival Calhoun earning the runner-up spot.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.