Colquitt County wrestling coach Benjy Scarbor talks with Russell Flowers at the scramble held at the high school on Nov. 9. Flowers is back after finishing fifth in the state meet last season.

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County wrestling program lost three individual state champions from last year’s team that finished second in the state tournament and is awaiting several key athletes competing on the school’s 11-0 football team, but the Packers still managed a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s Bronco Stampede at Brookwood High School in Snellville.

“We’ve got some good, quality kids,” coach Benjy Scarbor said of his 2022-2023 team. “They are just inexperienced. We’re hoping by January they’ll be better.”

Colquitt is coming off its most successful season in school history.

In the Class 7A state championships last spring, Colquitt got state title performances from Austin Paradice at 160; Nate Taylor at 138; and freshman Logan Paradice at 132.

Colquitt had had just four state champions – Travis Register in 2012 and 2013 at 220; Nick Jarvis in 2019 at 220; and Austin Paradice in 2021 at 145 — heading into the state tournament.

But Austin Paradice has graduated and has taken his considerable skills to UT-Chattanooga. Taylor also was a senior last season.

And Logan Paradice has transferred to Baylor School in Chattanooga.

The Packers also got a second-place state finish last season from Ethan Sellers, who also has graduated and is wrestling at Life University. Jesus Grijalva, another stalwart on last year’s team, also has graduated.

But Scarbor, a longtime successful coach who has produced five state champions since taking over the Colquitt County program in 2017, has several veterans he is counting on.

Sophomore Russell Flowers, who finished fifth at the state tournament last season, got his season off to a strong start by going 3-0 at Brookwood, winning by a major decision over Howard Heller of Marist and pinning both Jack Mikita of Marist and Zoe Parris of Cherokee.

Flowers competed at 165.

Michael Bledsoe also turned in a fifth-place finish at state last year. Wrestling at 150, he went 1-2 at Brookwood.

Eric Henson was 2-1 and placed second at 144 at the Bronco Stampede. In his final match, he took a 5-0 decision over Austin Farmer of Social Circle.

Logan Rivenbark earned 16 points for the Packers when he went 3-0 at 150 pounds, taking decisions over Ty Cummings of West Laurens and Michael Heath of Brookwood and pinning Seaton Sterling of West Laurens.

The Packers also got second-place finishes from Billy Lawton at 138 and Randy Smith at 144.

Jorge Quirez went 3-1 at 190 pounds.

North Hall was first in the Stampede with 154 points, finishing one point ahead of Rockmart.

Social Circle was third with 136.5 points and South Forsyth was fourth with 127.

Colquitt County and Hillgrove tied for fifth with 106 points.

Also competing for the varsity Packers at the Stampede were Alan Escobar at 106; Cristobal Camarena at 120; Landon Taylor and Gabriel Barrios at 157; and Robert Tompkins at 285.

In the junior varsity matches, 13 Packers competed, including Luis Garcia and Quintarious Mitchell at 106; Hector Gonzalez at 120; Andy Sanchez and Ismael Garcia at 126; Diego Barrios, Jayson Howard and Anthony Duque at 138; De’Montrae Reeves and Chetanna Barber at 157; Alejandro Lopez-Perez at 165; Aaron Dunn at 215; and Carter Beck at 285.

The Packers prepared for the trip to Brookwood by holding a scramble on the William Bryant Court at the high school on Nov. 9 with several schools competing. Each wrestler had three matches.

The Colquitt County middle school team also took part.

The Packers varsity and junior varsity wrestlers will compete next in Raja Bryan Memorial Invitational on Saturday at Ola High school in McDonough and will travel to the Grapple on the Gridiron on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at Valdosta High School.

This season’s schedule also includes the Packer Classic Duals that will be held at the high school on Thursday, Dec. 22.

The Region 1-7A duals will be held at Camden County on Saturday, Jan. 7, and the region traditional tournament will be held on Saturday, Feb. 4, at Lowndes.