Six area wrestling teams earned berths Saturday for next weekend's GHSA state duals.
Northwest Georgia's state qualifiers included three of the eight teams that will compete for the Class AAA championship at Stephens County High School.
Top-seeded Sonoraville won as expected in the preliminary duals round, which pitted the top four finishers from last week's area/region duals at eight sites hosted by area/region winners in each class. While Sonoraville cruised with wins of 65-16 over Monroe Area and 54-27 over Westminster, Murray County and North Murray pulled off upsets to join the Phoenix in heading to state duals, which are set for next Saturday in all classifications.
Sonoraville, a three-time state traditional tournament champion, got two wins each from Noah Chastain (106 pounds), Thomas Young (113), Wade Parker (120), Logan Moore (132), Colt Weaver (170) and Gavin Harper (182). Several Phoenix wrestlers, including reigning individual state champs Jebb Knight and Jaxx Knight, wrestled only one match.
Murray County, the Area 5 third seed, edged Cherokee Bluff 43-42 in the opening round before getting past host Brantley County 46-36 in the final. North Murray had a similar path in earning its first state duals berth, downing Harlem 51-27 before edging host Lumpkin County 35-33 in the final.
Joining those three at Stephens County will be Adairsville, Gilmer, Morgan County, Oconee County and Rockmart.
Other area teams advancing are Heritage in Class AAAA, Dade County in Class AA and Trion in Class A.
Dade County will join Fannin County, Haralson County, Lamar County, Lovett, Oglethorpe County, Pepperell and Vidalia at Bremen High School.
"We were missing a couple of wrestlers from our lineup today, and we were still able to win in dominant fashion," Dade County coach Jeff Poston said. "We're excited to make the elite eight for the fourth consecutive year."
Trion, after blanking both its opponents in last week's area duals, nearly did the same Saturday at home with wins of 78-6 over Bowdon and 84-0 over Bryan County.
"Our guys are wrestling with a lot of confidence right now," said Trion coach Eric Brock, whose program has finished first and second in the past two state duals tournaments. "The entire lineup pinned their opponents in the finals."
The Bulldogs will be joined at Class A state duals by host Commerce as well as Charlton County, Landmark Christian, Mount Pisgah Christian, Screven County, Social Circle and St. Anne-Pacelli.
Heritage, the third seed from Region 7-AAAA, won at Benedictine, defeating Mount Zion-Jonesboro 57-24 in the opening round before downing the hosts 38-34. Conner Pennington (120), Mike Stokes (145) and Skylar Grant (182) each went 2-0 with two pins, with Tate Thomas (106), Hayden Scheeler (113) and Drew Deitz (138) also going 2-0.
The Generals will be joined by Bainbridge, Cedartown, Columbus, Hampton, Jefferson, Marist and West Laurens in the Class AAAA state duals at LaGrange High School.
Area teams that were eliminated Saturday included Dalton in Class AAAAAA at Valdosta, Calhoun in Class AAAAA at Woodward Academy, LaFayette in Class AAA at Oconee County, Ringgold in Class AAA at Rockmart and Gordon Lee in Class A at St. Anne-Pacelli.
Staff file photo by Matt Hamilton / Dade County wrestling coach Jeff Poston's program is headed to state duals for the fourth season in a row.BASKETBALL
Boyd Buchanan girls 46, Grace 9: Sarah Durham scored a game-high 14 points and the Lady Buccaneers (14-5, 5-2 Division II-AA East Region) used a 17-point third quarter to cruise to the home win.
Model girls 50, Trion 45: The Lady Bulldogs lost the nonregion game despite eight points each from Jenna Mosley and Ransley Lawrence.
Boyd Buchanan boys 63, Grace 46: Caden Johnson scored 13 points with nine assists, nine steals and six rebounds, and Jacob Shockley added 10 points as the Bucs (9-9, 4-2 DII-AA East) won big. Eli Ibrahim scored 10 for Grace.
LFO boys 71, Murray County 63: Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe (15-1, 8-1 GHSA Region 6-AAA) won Friday as Brent Bowman recorded his 1,000th career point.
LaFayette boys 54, North Murray 44: The Ramblers remained undefeated at 16-0, 9-0 with the Region 6-AAA win Friday as star senior Aidan Hadaway had a game-high 30 points.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.