MOULTRIE – As the new Colquitt County High wrestling head coach, Benjy Scarbor doesn’t want the 12 Packers who qualified for GHSA traditional sectionals to try to move on to the championship meet. He wants all of them – not just the favorites going in as area champions – expecting to move on to Macon in two weeks.

This past weekend at the 1-7A traditional meet held in Camden County, Colquitt qualified 12 out of 14 total weight classes, which means these 12 placed in the top four in their class.

Though the Packers placed third in the team standings, this was the only group other than Camden County to win weight class titles: Nic Jarvis with his 60 total victories on the season at 220 pounds, and senior Victor Castanon at 170 pounds.

In the sectional, taking place Friday and Saturday at Lowndes High School’s gym, Areas 2, 7 and 8 in 7A send their wrestlers to take on Colquitt, Camden and the rest of Area 1. Scarbor said the big roadblocks here come not only when you face Camden, but also from Brookwood, Archer, Grayson and Rockdale County.

To advance past sectional to the state finals in Macon starting Feb. 8, a wrestler must win two matches before losing two. The better you do, Scarbor said, the better your seed will be in Macon.

On the current team, only Jarvis and junior Jared Collum – who placed second in area at 106 pounds – have state finals experience.

“We’re going to get as many through as we can,” said Scarbor. “I want them to get comfortable out there … believing they can go, not that I’m going to try to go. I like their chances.”

Scarbor spent Monday studying all weight brackets. There will be 16 in the brackets at Lowndes and 16 in the other sectional (Areas 3-6 at Mill Creek); each field will then be cut in half to send a total of 16 per division to Macon.

In the case of Jarvis, Scarbor said there’s a chance for him to face competition not yet seen. The coach said he feels good about Jarvis getting those first two wins and then likely facing Emmanuel Michel of Archer.

“That’s an interesting matchup,” he said.

For Castanon, it’s been an injury-plagued wrestling season. He’s only lost one time on the mat, that because of injury retirement. Otherwise, he has 23 wins.

“When he’s healthy, he wins at the neutral position,” said Scarbor. “He has a couple of go-to (takedown) moves, and his experience pays off. He understands how to wrestle a six-minute match and dominate on his feet.”

Much like Jarvis, Scarbor is confident in Castanon’s ability to get through the first two sectional rounds before facing a serious potential challenge from Jhaquan Anderson of Rockdale.

“That will be a handful,” he said.

In addition to Collum (vs. Hunter Smith of Grayson first), junior Timmy Brinson (vs. Antonio Lucero of Rockdale first) placed second at 132 pounds as did sophomore Deonte Edwards (vs. Michael Briscoe of Pebblebrook first) at 138 pounds. The third place finishers were freshman Cedric Wynn (vs. Jake Gabriel of East Coweta first) at 113, junior Michael Roberts (vs. Andre Dennard of South Gwinnett first) at 195 and sophomore Fulton King (vs. Patrick Henson of Newnan first) at 285.

Four Packers came in fourth: freshmen Kadden Sanchez (120) and Payden Littleton (126), sophomore Jonathan Wickett (145) and senior Tyvon Dowdell (152).