MACON, Ga. — Ridgeland has no chance of winning a team title, but there may not be another program in Georgia batting a thousand this weekend at the GHSA Traditional Wrestling Championships.
Each of the Panthers’ two wrestlers competing at the Macon Centreplex — 138-pound Caleb Mariakis and 220-pound Chris Henderson — will compete for an individual title today after winning tight semifinal matches Friday in the Class AAAA competition. Mariakis, son of coach Keith Mariakis, had to go overtime before defeating Chestatee’s Marvin Cunningham, 4-2; Henderson got up early on White County’s Andrew Postan, 8-4.
“My guys have wrestled really well,” Coach Mariakis said. “It’s been rough and every match has been close, but the guys have found a way to win. Caleb’s was really tough. You get a bad matchup here or there and you get kind of tight going in, and you’ve just got to find a way to get through it, and he did there. They’ve put themselves in position to win a state title, and that’s all you can ask.”
Ridgeland may not be in the team hunt, but any AAAA team not named Gilmer County is in the same boat. Sam Snider’s top-ranked team will have representatives in eight of the 14 individual championship matches today and has 195.5 points, far ahead of second-place Marist with 123.5.
“Marist has seven in the semis and they’ve won a couple, but they can’t make up that much difference tomorrow,” Snider said with a smile. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We had five in the finals last year and four champions. The most before that was two champions. We’ve never had eight in the finals, and if we can pull out four, five or six champions … wow, what a great year.”
Leading the Bobcats were senior captains William Gudger and Jamie Lopez. Gudger trailed Matthew McClellan of Chestatee 3-0 after two periods at 145 pounds but ended up getting a pin with 40 seconds to go in the match. Lopez followed at 152 with another third-period pin after leading by just a point entering it.
“The guys were very aggressive today,” Snider said. “Jamie Lopez and Will Gudger, our two senior captains, have really taken charge of warmups and drill progression and how hard we’re going to work in the room. They get a lot of credit for getting this young team here and getting this many in the finals.”
Gilmer started the semifinals with wins at 106 by Domingo Reynoso, at 113 by Trevor Preece, at 120 by Marcelino Lopez and at 132 by Omar Ruiz. Later, sophomores Matthew Waddell and Levi Seabolt ended the day with first-period pins at 170 pounds and heavyweight, respectively.
Other Class AAAA finalists from the area are Heritage’s Chuckie Thurman at 120 pounds and Southeast Whitfield’s Omar Ruiz at 132.
Northwest Whitfield is sixth with 53.5 points, but the Bruins’ three semifinalists — Bryan Gembe, Blake Hayes and Austin Taylor — all lost by decision.
Sonoraville stands fourth in Class AAA with 81.5 points, well behind Jefferson. However, the Firebirds have three finalists in Ryan Farist (170), Kevin Hurtiz (182) and heavyweight Kenny Cooper. In Class AA, Gordon Lee’s Jonathan Ragsdale continued to roll in his quest for a fourth individual title with a first-period pin at 120 pounds. In Class A, Trion’s Cole Luallen is a finalist at 120 pounds.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.