Georgia State Duals Fan's Guide - 6A

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.

 
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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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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 6A

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Seeds:

  1. Richmond Hill

  2. Creekview

  3. Pope

  4. Alexander

6A is always one of the most exciting tournaments to watch. The top teams are so closely matched that it really does come down to matchups, bonus points, and big moments. I remember watching Valdosta and Alexander come down to the wire and it was awesome. Richmond Hill is the #1 seed, but expect their path (as well as everyone else’s) to be challenging … I don’t think they will just cruise to a title like some teams in other classes have done in the past. Below I take a close look at each team and the 1st round matchups.

Top quarter of the bracket:

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Sequoyah is a tough team to get right off the bat … especially for the #1 seed. Richmond Hill has the advantage in 9 weights, but Sequoyah is tough - especially down low with Thorne’s, Small, and Satterfield. Richmond Hill has their own hammers down low with Anderson and Shores … which could make for some interesting individual matchups, but it is their 160-285 weights that will put up the #’s for the top seed.

I don’t know much about Stephenson, but as far as I can tell they don’t really have a clear advantage at any weight. Sanders (145), Young (152), and Godwin (220) are all returning qualifiers, but they could matchup with Nolan Smith, Kelley, Lacoste and Gatlin Smith … those weights will either be a Coffee lean or a “push” or “toss up”. I’d expect Cumbass , Wimberly, and Riano to lead Coffee into the quarterfinals. A Richmond Hill vs. Coffee matchup could be a good one.

2nd quarter of the bracket:

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Cambridge should have the advantage in 7 weights, Lanier in just one with the other 6 weights being a toss up. Lanier has the ability to win several of those toss up matchups, but I’d be surprised of Romano, Kane, and McHugh don’t lead Cambridge into the quarterfinals.

Alexander should dominate the lower to middle weights … Grovetown will need their 160-195 to get wins and bonus points if they are going to upset Alexander.

Interest

3rd quarter of the bracket:

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Tough matchup for the defending champs … we get good on good in some of the lower weights in the Pope vs. Valdosta matchup - with most of those leaning to Pope. If Valdosta is going to counter the points Gable, Haskin, Mordarski, etc. are going to get up top … Davis will need to take out Robinson at 120 and Lamon will need to beat Hearn at 138. Pope is solid from top to bottom and has the lineup to win the entire thing.

Brunswick, if the dual begins at 106, should build a sizable lead in their matchup vs. Mt Zion. Burke, McKinney, and Pitts are a tough group to handle down low … Mt Zion might lose those matches, but can’t afford to surrender bonus points. 5 matches (145, 160, 170, 195, and 220) are possible toss ups … so Mt Zion will need to keep it close and make the most of those opportunities.

Bottom quarter of the bracket:

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Evans relies on their hammers - Eller x2 and Derringer - to get them points. They have built some nice pieces around those hammers with Brooks, Myers, etc. - but how far they go this weekend will fall to how well the supporting cast helps the hammers. The Eller’s and Derringer are good for 18 points … can they find another 12-15 points from others in their lineup? Gainesville should have the advantage in 5 weights (106, 195, and 285 are possible forfeits); Evans should have the advantage in 5 weights … that means that the dual could come down to 132, 138, 182, and 220.

Creekview might be the best team from top to bottom in 6A. They really have no holes and have several hammers that should get them bonus points all weekend. That said - South Paulding is a tough opening dual. Byers, Seymour x2, and Van Dyck have all been on the podium at the individual state tournament and they won’t go down without a fight. There are several potential great individual matchups as well … keep an eye on Cory vs. Byers or Seymour; Wilkie vs. Van Dyck and perhaps Sousa vs. Kinard (if they get matched up). Creekview should win and advance but it won’t be easy.

Jason FulmoreComment