A day after Sonoraville helped kick off the Georgia High School Association wrestling postseason by winning the Area 6-AAA duals championship, Dade County, Northwest Whitfield and Trion joined the Phoenix by winning tournament titles Saturday in northwest Georgia to earn the right to host four-team state duals preliminary events next weekend.
In the Region 7-AAAA duals at Heritage High School, Northwest captured the No. 1 spot and the right to host by beating Central-Carroll 36-27 in the title match after downing Pickens 53-18 in the semifinals.
The Bruins overcame a 21-9 deficit in the championship final to beat the Lions with four consecutive pins.
Isaac Phillips (285 pounds) started the rally with a pin just before the first overtime buzzer. Gabe Bergeman (106 pounds), Eli Johnson (113) and Atticus Younes (120) followed with pins for a 27-21 Northwest lead, and the Bruins were ahead 33-27 headed into the final bout at 134 when Drake Kitchens sealed the win with a major decision.
"The difference in the match was that, outside of a couple of freshmen, none of our kids got pinned and we got several," Northwest coach Kenny Hill said. "We wrestled strong."
Heritage earned the fourth seed and will travel to the Region 6-AAAA winner. The Generals forfeited the third-place match to Pickens after falling to Central-Carroll 48-30 in the semifinal round. Heritage earlier defeated Cedartown, 45-30, and Southeast Whitfield, 54-24. Tate Thomas (106 pounds) was 3-0 with three pins, while Cayman Hughey and Skylar Grant also went 3-0.
In the Area 7-AAA duals at Model, Dade County swept through the field to capture the title, going 5-0.
The Wolverines posted wins over Gordon Central, 46-15, Pepperell, 54-24, and Chattooga, 42-24, to set up a winners-bracket final against No. 1 seed Model. Dade raced out to a 51-0 lead on the strength of pins from Eli Johnson (170), Cody Williams (182), Isaac Pangle (195) and Austin Sorrelle (220) to secure the berth in the championship round.
Dade then routed Coosa, 57-21, and will host a state duals preliminary next Saturday. Model fought back to finish second, with Pepperell third and Coosa fourth.
In the Area 7-A duals at Trion, the host Bulldogs cruised to the title, defeating Armuchee 72-12 after routing Darlington, 72-17 in the semifinal round. Top-seeded Trion will host a preliminary quad next Saturday along with Fellowship Christian, Athens Christian and Mount Zion-Carroll.
"Overall, I was pleased with the boys' effort today," Trion coach Eric Brock said. "It felt great to be able to compete in these uncertain times. We will go back to work and fine tune for the preliminaries."
Gordon Lee and Armuchee will also move on to the next round, from which the preliminary winners will advance to state duals in each of the GHSA's seven classifications.
In the Region 7-AAAAA duals at Cartersville, Calhoun advanced to the preliminary round by finishing third. The Yellow Jackets defeated Blessed Trinity 58-15 before falling to eventual champion Woodland-Bartow 58-15 in the semifinal round. Calhoun finished with wins over Hiram and Cartersville to earn third place.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.