DULUTH, Ga. — Though the northwest Georgia area failed to bring home a team championship at the GHSA traditional state wrestling tournament Saturday at the Gwinnett Center Arena, plenty of hardware came north with the teams.
Eleven area wrestlers won state championships, headed by Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe 215-pound Derrick Laney, who earned his third consecutive title. Taylor Pace of Gordon Lee and the LaFayette trio of Preston McCalmon, Seth Taylor and Justin Ownby each won a second championship.
Two other Gordon Lee wrestlers won their first titles in Class A: freshman 112-pound Alex Spires and 215-pound David Berry. Calhoun’s Hunter Knight was a surprise winner at 152 in Class AA, while Heritage’s Cory Canada won at 145 in AAA and Northwest Whitfield’s Russell Royal (112) and Murray County’s Dalton Lane (145) were Class AAAA champions.
LaFayette lost by seven points to Gilmer County for the team title in AAA, while Gordon Lee was a close second to Bremen in Class A.
“It’s a great accomplishment for the kids,” Gordon Lee coach Steve McDaniel said. “Having three state champions shows where the program is, and hopefully we can build from that.”