Georgia State Duals Fan's Guide - 1A

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:

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 1A

Seeds:

1. Commerce

2. Trion

3. Mt Pisgah

4. Holy Innocents

Commerce, like their small school brethren Social Circle and Jefferson, has long dominated their class. If Commerce were to claim another dual title in 2020 it would make it #7 in a row. Commerce is the #1 seed, but don’t be fooled into thinking they will walk to another title. There are several programs in the bracket that think 2020 is their year. That group is led by #2 seed Trion. Trion is led by 7 returning state placers and should be Commerce’s greatest threat to another title.

Top quarter of the bracket:

Commerce will wait for the winner of Iwin County and ELCA. Unfortunately I have little information about ELCA - so it seems pretty lopsided on who has the advantage. ELCA has made it this far so I know they have more of a lineup than is showing above (unfortunately I can’t find any of their results on Track or Flo). Irwin County does return 2 state placers including the best heavyweight in Georgia in DJ Lundy. Lundy is an absolute beast and is a must watch vs. Epps if Irwin gets to the quarters.

2nd quarter of the bracket:

Holy Innocents sits in the #4 seed and awaits the winner of what is the best opening round matchup in 1A - Mount de Sales vs. Mt Zion. Mt Zion returns 2 placers and 3 qualifiers, but it is the “holes” at 106, 152, and 160 that will keep this close (unless they have wrestlers at those weights that I was unable to find). A Mt Zion vs. Holy Innocents quarters would be a good one, but don’t sleep on Mount de Sales.

3rd quarter of the bracket:

Noble, the Bertrand’s and the rest of the Mt Pisgah crew await the winner of St Anne and Turner County in the quarters. Turner Coutny is led by Smith, Wilson, and Whitsett (each a returning placer) and could be a tough matchup for Pisgah in the quarters.

Bottom quarter of the bracket:

Trion is formidable and should move through this quarter with relative ease. Landmark Christian vs. Athens Christian features the only first round matchup in any class where there are no returning state champs, placers, or qualifiers from 2019. Still both bring a full squad and will look to make a mark in 2020. As I stated in the opening - Trion returns 7 placers and is a real challenge to everyone in the bracket.