Staff photo by Jake Daniels/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Sonoraville’s Bricen Romine lifts Dade’s Joey Tamburello during the 119-pound championship match on Saturday. Romine won the match. Sonoraville High School hosted the state sectional wrestling tournament in Calhoun, Ga., on Saturday afternoon.CALHOUN, Ga. — Eric Elrod is all about achieving goals, and the Sonoraville High School wrestling coach can check off one big one following a strong showing at the GHSA Class AA West Sectionals Saturday.
The Firebirds will send the maximum 14 wrestlers to the state traditional tournament this Thursday through Saturday at the Gwinnett Arena, sending a clear message to state kingpin Jefferson that the state title will not be easily won.
“We’ve never done that before and I’m extremely excited,” said Elrod, whose team had champions in Bricen Romine at 119 and Jay Teague at 130. “That was one of our goals and it’s very satisfying to achieve it. We had to fight our tails off today. The Columbus schools brought some tremendous athletes and Region 6-AA — I’ll call it the private school region — was very tough, and all of them are well coached.
“In the end it’s going to better prepare us for going through the fire next week. I hear Jefferson got 13 through, and I don’t know that’s much of an advantage on a team that’s won 10 times in a row, but we’ll take anything we can get.”
Though team scores aren’t kept at the sectional tournaments, the head scorekeeper said Sonoraville was at least 100 points ahead of the next closest team, Lovett, which will send nine wrestlers to the state. The Firebirds’ depth was devastating as the team had one individual runner-up, Matt Woodring, and six third-place finishers.