RINGGOLD, Ga. — There was a different step to the LaFayette Ramblers as they hit the mat this weekend in the Area 6-AAA traditional wrestling tournament at Heritage High School.
A third-place finish at the GHSA state duals last month has the state power of recent years a little hungrier than usual. That motivation was evident as LaFayette rolled to the area title with 218.5 points while second-place Heritage totaled 151.
The Ramblers had four individual champions — Brandon Wallin (125 pounds), Preston McCalmon (130), Seth Taylor (135) and heavyweight Kenny Sartin — and three runners-up and will take 11 wrestlers to next weekend’s sectional round at Riverwood High School. Heritage, which had champions in Landon Reed (112) and Corey Canada (145), will take eight to the sectional.
Wallin and McCalmon, in particular, displayed the focus LaFayette hopes to take to the state event in two weeks. Wallin avenged an earlier loss to Carrollton’s Mason Micham, 2-1 in the title match, and McCalmon did the same against Heritage’s Cody Goins, 4-3 in overtime.
“I lost to him at the Rockmart Invitational by two points, and I just went out there with the mindset that I would get him this time and I did what I had to do,” Wallin said. “I knew it was going to go six (minutes) because he’s a great wrestler.
“We’re an individual team this year. Last year we were more of a dual team. This year we’re more individually based with still a little bit of team heart. We’re used to being in the top two and being in the finals. It hurt us a little bit, but we’re going to come back in the traditional and try to make up for it.”
The Ramblers’ only major disappointment Saturday was defending state champion Justin Ownby’s loss to Cartersville’s Jake Johnson at 152. Ownby led 6-4 after the second period, but he started feeling some discomfort in his knee in the third and couldn’t hold off Johnson in a wild, 10-7 decision.
“That was a great match,” LaFayette coach Sam Forester said. “Ownby will be fine, but we’ll check it out. That very well could be a state championship match preview.
“This weekend was just about a bus ticket to the sectionals. It’s nice to win region, but we still have another round to go before we can even begin to think about the state. We took 12 last year, but we can do it with 11. We just have to get points from each of them.”
The other major storyline Saturday was the continued rounding into form of Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe’s Derrick Laney. Though the two-time defending state champion, who missed a good part of the season with a rib injury, won his third consecutive area title with a 9-2 win over Carrollton’s Patrick Darby, he admitted he’s not where he wants to be physically just yet.
“He’s such a large man with a lot of muscle mass, so it’s very difficult to be offensive,” Laney said of Darby. “You can’t throw him. I learned that the hard way, so the game plan was to wrestle defensive, and once I got the lead not to mess up my ribs. I’m very pleased that my ribs aren’t hurting right now. One thing I’m going to have to work on is my cardio. This was a good taste of what state’s going to be like.”
Cartersville, with four area champions, was the surprise of the tournament and finished in third place with 134 points.
Ridgeland, despite upset losses for former state placers Tommy Jones and Zack Clayton, finished fifth and will take five wrestlers to the sectionals. LFO, which also had 189-pound Madison Paris as an area champion, finished sixth and qualified four wrestlers, while Ringgold was seventh and will take five, including 103-pound champion Hayden Nichols.