Georgia State Duals Fan's Guide - 7A
Overall notes:
Remember this is a Fan’s Guide to the state dual tournament. For those of you that are less knowledgable regarding the specifics of duals vs. tournaments … duals are like other traditional sports where one team competes directly against another to accumulate the most points. Matchups at weight classes can play a huge role in the outcome and the ability of coaches to “move around” wrestlers to create favorable matchups can be critical to the outcome.
Order: Most of the time the dual begins at 106 and proceeds through the weight classes and concludes at heavyweight. That is not mandatory and the dual can start anywhere in the 14 weight classes … so if the dual starts at 145 it will proceed through the weight classes until it finishes at 138. As you can see in the example below … the 7A State Final began at 285 and then concluded at 220.
Scoring: An individual match is scored just like it always is … 2 points for a takedown, etc. The dual is scored the same way you may have seen throughout the season … but in case you were confused here is a brief idea of how it is done:
A fall is worth 6 pts
A technical fall (difference between individual wrestlers is 15 or more points) is worth 5 pts.
A major decision (difference between individual wrestlers is 8 or more, but under the 15) is worth 4 points.
A regular decision (basically a win without a fall, tech fall, or major), is worth 3 points.
Teams can be deducted points for a variety of reasons, but I won’t get into that.
Below is an example from last year’s 7A State Finals between Camden County and Mountain View.
NOTE: Programs in Georgia, as a whole, do a fairly poor job of capturing results through Trackwrestling or FloArena. Not all programs do a poor job, but there are schools listed below where I could not find any results (duals or tournaments) from the 2019-2020 season. As a result some of the information below is incorrect. I think it is important to remind everyone the purpose of this “Fan’s Guide”. Many people will descend on Macon from across the state this Thursday and may not have any idea about the school they are wrestling or the other action that is going on around on the floor. This is simply a way to help your average fan have a better understanding of the teams and some of the individuals that are competing. Are there wrestlers missing from the information below that will be in the lineup? Yes. Are there wrestlers that will be competing at a weight rather than what is listed below? Absolutely yes. The “advantage” listed to the side is based on 2 things:
Whether a wrestler is a returning state champ, placer, or qualifier. Typically a wrestler that is a returning champ will have the “advantage” on a wrestler that is not a returning champ.
If I found results of one wrestler beating another during the season … that would get the wrestler that won an “advantage”. Was it close? Did someone get caught? It really doesn’t matter because this isn’t a prediction … again it is one person’s opinion based on limited information of who might have an advantage.
A “toss-up” is where neither is a returning qualifier and, as far as I can tell from online results, they haven’t wrestled. Is it possible I missed a result when putting this together? I’m sure I have. I don’t remember who beat who in the 2nd round of consolations at the Buford Takedown Invitational in early December. All of that to say … enjoy the fan’s guide. I plan to be on the floor Friday and Saturday taking pictures and updating this part of the website throughout the weekend.
Class 7A
Seeds:
Camden County
Collins Hill
Brookwood
West Forsyth
Camden County are the 5x defending Champs. They lost a ton of talent last season, but in looking at how the new group has performed - you can see why there is a reluctance to pick anyone else. Wrestling at both the Danny Byron and Capital City in Florida and Coastal Clash in South Carolina - Camden doesn’t look as if they have missed a beat. They lack the star power of last year’s squad, but don’t be fooled into thinking they can’t win it again this weekend. Collins Hill is the #2 seed and have also gone all over to compete with the best … up at the Southern Slam in South Carolina and down at the Knockout in Florida. The boys from Collins Hill are on mission. Will they dethrone Camden? Brookwood and West Forsyth come in at #3 and #4. Both have firepower and could make things interesting. Don’t be surprised if you see McEachern on the podium. I haven’t mapped out the path for them to place yet, but they have 4 qualifiers and 1 placer in the lineup and could make things difficult for others in the bracket.
Top quarter of the bracket:
Camden has the advantage at nearly every weight. I would suspect they will cruise through the first round vs. Parkview. Cherokee and Mountain View should be much closer. Cherokee has 4 returning qualifiers and TJ Parks to finish things off, who placed last season. Mountain View has an absolute hammer in Garrett Spikes, but I’m not sure they have bodies at 195 and 220 (or if they have another wrestler at 182 so they could bump Spikes up). Cherokee should have the advantage at 7 weights, Mountain View counters with 3. Can Garrett Jackson, who is a returning qualifier, beat Parks if it came down to that match?
2nd quarter of the bracket:
Interesting quarter of the bracket.
Rockdale County and North Paulding should be close. Both teams could be favored in 6 matches … meaning it might come down to 182 and 220 to determine who moves on. Another determining factor is who can get bonus points (and who can avoid giving them up). Rockdale needs Walley and Pollard to get bonus points … North Paulding will rely on Cline. Does Rockdale have a 106 and 113? Right now North Paulding has those 2 because I couldn’t find evidence that Rockdale has the two lightest weight classes. Giving up 12 points is a tough way to win a dual.
Newnan vs. West Forsyth looks like a fun dual with West Forsyth having a slight advantage. If things are close going into the 152 weight class (assuming we start at 106) then West Forsyth should cruise to the win. Rickert, Lorenzo, and Fairchild will look to win and get bonus points. If the “toss-ups” down low go to Newnan … things could be interesting.
3rd quarter of the bracket:
A very interesting quarter … at least on paper.
Brookwood is the 3 seed, but it looks like Archer could be a bad matchup for them (again read my caveats up top). Brookwood should have the advantage at 5 weights … and if those wrestlers are at those weights then they definitely have an advantage. Starks, Mullis, and Hornsby are hammers are will look to get Brookwood 18 points in every match they wrestle. Bentley is a returning qualifier so he should have the advantage down low at 120. I thought Oldknow was younger than a Senior in the upperweights, but he could be considered an advantage for Brookwood up at 195/220. The key for Archer is 106, 113, 126, 138, and 145. Rogers, Hipp and company need to lead the way with wins and bonus points if Archer is going to pull the upset.
The young guns of North Forsyth make an appearance and seem to matchup well with East Coweta. Jacob Gabriel and Jaxon Garner are the only returning qualifiers for East Coweta so if they are going to advance they will need others to step up and get points. North Forsyth will look to the Bissell’s in the middle of the lineup to lead the way, but like East Coweta will need some of the younger faces to step up and get wins if they are going to move on as well. This quarter of the bracket should be fun to watch.
Bottom quarter of the bracket:
The bottom quarter of the bracket features the #2 seed Collins Hill. The eagles didn’t get any favors from the committee … drawing a very tough Colquitt County right out of the gate. Collins Hill will have the advantage in at least 6 of the weights, Colquitt County should have an advantage in 3. Edwards or Paradice vs. St. Preuve at 152 and Spradley vs. Ransom at 170 should be very good matches.
Lassiter lost one of their hammers in defending state champ RJ Weston and that makes the road a bit more difficult. Lassiter should have an advantage in 5 matches, McEachern should have an advantage in 6. I’d expect the dual to be close, but Lassiter must find a way to not give up 6 points at 152, 195, and 220. Especially if the match is close and McEachern bumps Dubre up after taking a forfeit at 220.