2020 TRADITIONAL WRESTLING STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
TOURNAMENT FIELD FEATURES ABUNDANCE OF DEPTH AND CHAMPIONSHIP POTENTIAL BY CRAIG SAGER II | SAGERC2@GMAIL .COM
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he 2020 Traditional Wrestling State Tournament returns to the Macon Centreplex on Feb. 13-15. Across the seven classifications, 98 individual boys titles and seven team state championships will be awarded. Additionally, 10 individual girls state champions will be crowned for the second-consecutive year. Five-time defending traditional champion and three-time reigning Class AAAAAAA champion Camden County is back to headline the field. The Wildcats dominated the competition a year ago with a 223.5 finish that dwarfed second-place Collins Hill (146.5), thirdplace Mountain View (139) and fourth-place Brookwood (125). The Wildcats are the only Class AAAAAAA program that is qualified wrestlers in all 14 weight classes and will be looking take advantage of their depth. A total of 14 Class AAAAAAA programs qualified seven or more wrestlers and Brookwood, Collins Hill, Colquitt County and West Forsyth are each sending 11 wrestlers to Macon. Class AAAAAAA looks to be wide open after Valdosta edged Pope for its first-ever traditional state title a year ago. The Wildcats will have just seven wrestlers competing this year, while Creekview (13), Richmond Hill (13), Brunswick (12) Alexander (11), Cambridge (11), Coffee (10), Pope (10), Sequoyah (9), South Paudling (9) and Lee County (8) are each arriving with more qualifiers. Pope defeated Valdosta (48-21), Brunswick (51-9), Creekview (28-26) and Rich-
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mond Hill (30-24) on its path to the dual state title in January In Class AAAAA, Woodland-Cartersville swept both titles last year and has positioned itself to record its second-straight sweep after defending its dual championship in convincing fashion this past month. Woodland is in great shape to succeed after qualifying 12 wrestlers for the state tournament, but the classification is filled with other programs that boast championship depth and potential. Buford joins Camden County as the only other program to qualify wrestlers at all 14 weight classes and Ola (12), Veterans, Walnut Grove (12), Ware County (10), Union Grove (10), Cass (9), Harris County (9), Loganville (9), South Effingham (9), Cass (9) and Riverwood (8) also possess ample depth. In Woodward Academy will look for its secondstraight sweep of Class AAAA titles after toppling West Laurens (55-24), Cartersville (45-30), Blessed Trinity (5028) and Gilmer (44-24) to capture back-to-back dual state titles last month. The War Eagles qualified 11 wrestlers and will take on a tough field that includes six more programs with double-digit qualifiers Northwest Whitfield (12), Central-Carroll (11), Perry (11), Blessed Trinity (10), Gilmer (10), North Oconee (10) and West Laurens (10), in addition to Flowery Branch (9) and Madison County (8). In History was made in Class AAA last February when first-place Sonoraville (172) and second-place North
Hall (168.5) narrowly denied Jefferson (165.5) a traditional state title for the first time since 2000. Jefferson suffered a fourth-place finish at the duals last month as North Hall took the title, Sonoaraville placed runner-up and Jackson County earned third-place with its 32-29 win over the Dragons. North Hall leads the way in Class AAA with 13 total qualifiers with Sonoraville (12) and Jackson County (12) also ahead of Jefferson, which qualified nine wrestlers. In Class AA, Social Circle won its fifth-straight traditional championship last year, but was recently defeated by Chattooga (59-21) in the Class AA Dual Finals. Social Circle will have just six wrestlers competing this weekend and Chattooga is arriving with nine state qualifiers. Additionally, Oglethorpe County (10), Banks County (8), Berrien (8), Dade County (8), Elbert County (8), Model (8), Rockmart (8), Screven County (8), Toombs County (7) and Vidalia (7) also qualified more wrestlers than the defending champs. Similarly to Class AA, six-time defending traditional champion Commerce was toppled in last month’s duals—Trion defeated the Tigers (46-25) in the finals. Trion leads Class A with 12 wrestlers qualified for this weekend’s competition. Commerce qualified nine total wrestlers and Holy Innocents’ (10), Mt. Pisgah (10), Mt. Zion (10), George Walton Academy (8), Lanmark Christian (8), Wesleyan (8), Irwin County (7) and Turner County (7) will also feature sizeable depth.
