Sports
Adam Krohn: Area 7-4A wrestling meet filled with could-have-beens
Local wrestlers represented their schools well Saturday at the Area 7-4A traditional tournament at Allatoona in Acworth. Between Dalton, Northwest Whitfield and Murray County, 12 wrestlers qualified for this weekend’s Class 4A West sectionals at Upston Lee.
In team competition, the Catamounts finished in second place 7.5 points behind Cass, with Northwest and Murray County taking sixth and seventh place, respectively.
With a few breaks here and there, local wrestlers could have made an even bigger impact at the area meet. Two instances come to mind.
• In the 189-pound weight class, Murray County’s Zac Dills was wrestling Cass’ Alex Foster. Near the end of the second period, Dills was trailing Foster by two points when an assistant official violated Georgia High School Association rules by calling a takedown, a call that can only be made by the head official. When the head official didn’t make the call, the assistant official took the initiative to rule a takedown, giving Foster two points and a four point lead heading into the third period.
The call infuriated Indians coach Chris Thornbury, who took his hat off in disgust, got out of his chair and argued vehemently with both officials, pointing out the clear violation of GHSA rules. But the argument fell on deaf ears and the match resumed.
“I can’t comment on that,” Thornbury said.
At the beginning of the third period, Dills scored a takedown for two points that would have tied the match and changed its dynamics. But Foster would earn another takedown and win, 11-7, to claim the area championship. Dills still qualified for sectionals, however, and will be looking for a more favorable outcome.
• In the 130 championship match, Cats sophomore Reinaldo Torres was trailing Sprayberry’s Colby Reinhardt, 5-2, with less than a minute remaining. Torres orchestrated a valiant comeback, scoring a two-point takedown and pull to within 5-4. Instead of letting Reinhardt get up so he could try and take him down again, Torres kept him in the hold for the remaining seconds of the match and Reinhardt escaped with the victory.
“That was just a sophomore mistake,” Cats coach Charles Mitchell said. “He wrestled very well just to get (to the championship match), but he’s got to learn what to do in those situations.”
Had Torres and Dills won their matches, Dalton could have captured the team title. But it wasn’t to be.
Aside from what could have been, another highlight worth noting is the dominant performance by the Indians’ Dalton Lane.
The 145-pound junior is absolutely one area wrestler to watch in the sectionals.
At the area meet, he won four matches by without hardly a challenge and took the championship match by technical fall (19-2). He was never challenged and Thornbury expects him to make a deep run at the sectionals.
“He’s just going in there and kicking butt,” Thornbury said. “That’s just what he does.”
Adam Krohn is a sports writer for The Daily Citizen. You can write him at adamkrohn@daltoncitizen or follow him on Twitter @adamkrohn.
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