Area prep roundup: Duarte stands out for Indians; Raiders second at Blessed Trinity

CHATSWORTH — Murray County’s John Duarte is the kind of wrestler coaches dream of having. No matter how dominant he wrestles or how quickly he dismantles his opposition, it is never good enough for Duarte.

“There are still a lot of things that I need to improve on and work on,” Duarte said Saturday at the Murray Invitational, where he received the Todd Granger Most Outstanding Wrestler after winning three matches by pin to win the 132-pound weight class.

“I need to work a little bit harder to get in shape and get focused for the area tournament and state.”

He seemed to be very focused on Saturday on his way to earning the tournament’s highest honor. Granger, who won a state championship while wrestling at Murray County and was a 1994 graduate of the high school, died in an automobile accident the following year. Tim Granger, Todd’s father, presented Duarte with the award.

Duarte was one of three local wrestlers to capture individual championships in the tournament. In the finals, Dalton’s Reinaldo Torres (152 pounds) pinned Gant Hughes of Alabama’s Fort Payne in the first period, and Coahulla Creek’s Francisco Sanchez (113) won the school’s first individual tournament title with a decision over Fort Payne’s Abelerado Domingo.

Duarte beat Ringgold’s Adam Crawford for his title.

“It didn’t last too long,” Duarte said after getting a pin in just 12 seconds. “I feel pretty confident right now with how I am wrestling. I think if I stay confident, I have a good chance at state. This is my senior season, and I am going all out.”

Murray County coach Chris Thornbury said Duarte did especially well since he was wrestling up a weight class after weighing in at 126 on Saturday morning.

“To get all of those guys with pins in the first period is impressive,” Thornbury said. “He was wrestling a real quality kid in the finals, and he had a chance to end the match, and he did it. He was dominant, and then he was the most humble guy in the gym.”

Murray County finished fourth overall in its home tournament, which was won by Cherokee for the second straight year. Ringgold was second, followed by Fort Payne. Dalton was fifth overall, with seven wrestlers finishing in the top four. The Indians had three second-place finishes and a third in addition to Duarte’s title victory.

“I love these kids a lot,” Thornbury said of his team, which has been young all season but has made steady progress throughout the year. “We lost to Fort Payne in the duals last night, and then battled back and beat quality Alcoa (Tenn.) and Dalton teams. I think that it is pretty obvious how much better they have gotten as the year has gone on.”

Domingo Bautista (106, second), Clayton Thornbury (182, second), Willie Amador (195, third) and Blade LeQuire (285, second) all medaled for the Indians.

Torres continues to be the most consistent finisher for the Catamounts this season, rolling through 152. However, between now and the first weekend in February at the Area 7-3A traditional tournament, he would like to be able to wrestle in the 138-pound weight class.

“I want to finish where I started at (138),” Torres said. “I am at 148 right now, and I can get down to 145 easily, but it wouldn’t feel right.”

Other placers for Dalton were Larry Fernandez (220, second), Sidney Wheeler (182, third), Dylan Carlile (120, third), Luis Madrigal (160, fourth) and Jose Madrigal (170, fourth).

Coahulla Creek coach Anthony Thomas said Sanchez’s victory at 113 was in doubt late in the tournament. During the semifinals, he injured his thumb and wasn’t sure that he would be able to wrestle in the finals.

After going up in the stands to talk to his dad, Sanchez took the mat.

“He came back in the last minute in the semifinals and won the match, but he hurt his thumb pretty badly,” Thomas said. “He still wanted to wrestle, and he never trailed in the championship and got some late back points to take the win and put it out of reach.”

Labron Kendrick (138, second) and Alex Hefner (145, fourth) also earned points for the Colts — a first-year program wrestling with only half a lineup this season — who were last in the 10-team field.

• Southeast Whitfield finished second at the 15-team Blessed Trinity Invitational in Roswell, losing by 3.5 points to the hosts.

The Raiders, who had eight wrestlers in Saturday’s finals after advancing 10 into the semis, have enjoyed good results in most of their traditional tournaments this season. They won Ringgold’s Tri-State Classic, an eight-team event, in November and were third at Dalton’s 21-team Carpet Classic in December.

“We’ve wrestled a lot of duals this year. This is only our fourth traditional tournament,” Southeast coach Michael Herndon said. “So definitely, toward the end of the season it’s good to get that traditional format and see how everybody performs. I think we’re peaking at the right time with (the Area 7-3A traditional tournament) in two weekends. Hopefully it will show there.”

Winning titles at Blessed Trinity for the Raiders were Jesus Dominguez (126) and Carlos Fraire (220), while Omar Ruiz (106), Ismael Sandoval (113), Jeremy White (120), Aaron Thomas (132), Lester Paucay (138) and Austin Allen (160) took second. Other Southeast medalists were Edgar Federico (170, third), Austin Stafford (182, fourth), Jose Ortiz (285, fifth) and Abel Mendiola (195, sixth).

The Raiders led Blessed Trinity by 2.5 points going into the finals. One more win in the finals would have given them the title — out of six Blessed Trinity wrestlers in the finals, four won — but Herndon wasn’t discouraged by the near-hit on a second traditional tournament title for the season.

“I’d put this one kind of above Ringgold,” Herndon said. “We brought 13 wrestlers and 12 placed. Everybody wrestled hard and everybody scored points, so I’m proud of everybody.”

• North Murray finished third at Chattooga’s Northwest Georgia Duals, beating Armuchee 48-28 to earn its place.

Earlier in the day, the Mountaineers lost 39-38 to Alabama’s Piedmont — which went on to finish runner-up to Dawson County — losing a team point when a North Murray wrestler threw his headgear. But they bounced back to record wins against Model, 60-22, and Pepperell, 58-19.

Several wrestlers went up a weight class on Saturday to fill out the lineup.

“I thought they did a terrific job, considering over half of the team was JV,” said Mountaineers coach Steve Colley, who said he’s had several wrestlers quit in the second half of the season.

Jonathan Dunn (113) went 4-0 and Jeremiah Watkins (220) was 2-0 for North Murray, while Elias Lechuga (132), Ethan Center (170), Justin Pack (182), Justin Saylor (195) all were 4-1. Going 3-2 were Alex Gambino (106), Tyler McKee (160) and Blane Anderson (285).

Jordan Wells (220) won his only match of the day, while Derek Hammond (120) and Joey Jones (145) each recorded his first varsity win. Zach Crumbley (285) who joined the team this week and was going on one day of practice, won two matches.

• At Habersham Central’s Sham Slam, a 31-team traditional tournament featuring teams from all classifications across the state, Northwest Whitfield’s Dustin Pendergrass (145) was fifth and Brian Whitmire (182) placed sixth.

Basketball

• Northwest girls 79, Johns Creek 52: Coming off of their worst loss of the season, the Lady Bruins needed a bounce-back game in a bad way.

They got it by running Johns Creek up and down the floor in a rout that erased the taste of Friday night’s 69-36 loss to Rome at home.

Carley Fetzer, who was held to just two points in the loss to the Lady Wolves, responded with a game-high 14 points and seven rebounds to lead the Lady Bruins (11-9 overall, 4-5 Region 7-4A) in the road win.

“This is a game that she needed,” Lady Bruins coach Greg Brown said. “This was the Carley Fetzer that we saw the first half of this year. We played really well. I was a little afraid of what it was going to be like having to sit on a bus and play our second game in 24 hours, but I was very pleased with our effort.”

Taylor Baker finished with 13 points for the Lady Bruins, while Marissa Fraire added 10.

• Northwest boys 66, Johns Creek 44: Daniel Kubin’s 17-point effort paced the Bruins (13-6, 6-3 Region 7-4A), who turned a nine-point lead at halftime into a second-half blowout.

“At halftime it was 30-21,” Bruins coach Ryan Richards said. “We got a really good run going late in the third quarter, and a big one in the fourth. We were up by 30 at one point.”

Tallon Trew added 11 points for Northwest, while Tyler Baker and Kaleb King each chipped in eight.

• Northwest JV girls 36, Woodland-Bartow 22: Macy Weeks scored eight points on her way to winning tournament MVP honors as the Lady Bruins (14-0) won the championship at Cass’ tourney.

Sara Richards also had eight points in the victory, while Mallory Souther — named to the all-tournament team along with Colbie Thomas and Weeks — added seven.

• Northwest JV boys 52, Cass 36: Tanner Bailey led with 20 points and Caleb Storey added 15 as the Bruins won for the 12th time in 15 games this season.

• Dalton freshman boys 64, Northwest 46: Mark Simms had 19 points to lead the Catamounts past the Bruins in the third-place game for a freshman league that also includes Tennessee’s McCallie and Ooltewah.

Tabius Padgett added 18 for Dalton and Emeir Bowman had 13, while Jamon Horne’s 18-point effort led Northwest (5-9).

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