Georgia State Duals Fan's Guide - 3A
Overall notes:
Remember this is a Fan’s Guide for 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 3A
Seeds:
Jefferson
North Hall
Jackson County
Sonoraville
6A is al
Top quarter of the bracket:
As the top seed - Jefferson gets the easiest path to the semis. Not that either Stone Mountain or Islands will be an easy out - but on paper it looks like a more favorable draw than the other seeds. Islands should have the advantage in 4 matches, Stone Mountain in 3 with the remaining 7 being up “toss-ups”. Neither team returns much in terms of placers or qualifiers - with Adams of Islands being the only placer returning. That said - Jefferson doesn’t have much in terms of returning placers or qualifiers either but they have won a dual state title in every year that is has been contested (all the way back to 2002). So it is hard to think this will be the year they don’t win it again.
2nd quarter of the bracket:
Lovett with 3 returning placers and 3 other qualifiers is a real threat on the top side of the bracket. They get Brantley County first, but should be able to score enough with their hammers to advance to a showdown with Sonoraville. Sonoraville, the 4 seed, return 7 placers and an additional qualifier. They are super deep and have the ability to give anyone in the bracket a problem - including Jefferson.
3rd quarter of the bracket:
Jackson County is the #3 seed and with face either Adairsville or Pierce County in the quarters. Adairsville vs. Pierce County should be the best first round matchup in 3A. Adairsville has the advantage in 8 matches, but both teams have 1 returning hammer (Banda for Adairsville and Carter for Pierce County) along with 3 other returning qualifiers. Pierce County will need for the young guns to come through if they are going to get the win. Whichever team wins will run into a powerhouse in Jackson County. Jackson County has state placers galore from 152-285 and has two other state qualifiers in Gonzales and McArter.
Bottom quarter of the bracket:
If there is a team in the bracket that looks most poised to take away the streak from Jefferson - it is North Hall. North Hall returns 6 placers and 4 qualifiers. They have them littered throughout the lineup and have a ton of flexibility to move wrestlers around and maximize their points. They will most likely get Pike County in the quarters. Pike County has 2 placers and 2 qualifiers and looks to have an advantage in 7 of their matches vs. Benedictine.