Freshman Marjory Sanchez, top, placed third in Sectional competition and will compete in the girls state championships.

MOULTRIE — Colquitt County’s Russell Flowers and JaQuavian Daniels won Sectional championships on Saturday and will lead a group of five Packers to next week’s state championships in Macon.

Also qualifying for the state tournament are Packers Michael Bledsoe and Matthew Dillon and Marjory Sanchez of the Colquitt County girls team.

Flowers, a sophomore, will be making his second-straight trip to the state tournament after winning four straight matches at 150 pounds at the Sectional held at Valdosta High School. He went on to finish fifth at state as a freshman last year.

Daniels, a junior who wrestles at 285, will be going to state for the first time.

Bledsoe at 144 and Dillon at 215 each placed fourth at Valdosta. Bledsoe also qualified for the state tournament last year and finished fifth.

The top six wrestlers in each weight class advance to the state tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17-18 at the Macon Centreplex.

Sanchez, a freshman, advances to the state tournament after her third-place finish at 145 pounds in the girls Sectional held Friday at Upson-Lee High School in Thomaston.

Flowers won his first match in the Sectional via a 9-0 major decision over Demnark’s Juan Bayona.

In the quarterfinal, he earned a second-straight major decision, taking down North Gwinnett’s Connor Weaver 10-2.

And in the semifinals, Flowers took a 12-8 decision over Marietta’s Malachi Sanders, who has a 33-3 record this season.

In the final, Flowers won a 3-1 decision over Lambert High junior Max Sciro.

Flowers has been battling injuries since getting injured in the Port City Classic at Brunswick High School on Jan. 28.

“He’s been wrestling hurt since then,” Packers coach Benjy Scarbor said. “But he’s hard-nosed kid. He’s going to go.”

Daniels, junior, got a late start after starting for the Packers football team and it has taken a while for him to get into wrestling shape.

And because of his commitment to football, he does not get in some of the off-season wrestling work that many of his opponents do.

“But he’s starting to figure some things out,” Scarbor said. “In some of his losses this season, he has beat himself. He didn’t beat himself today.”

Daniels’s key match was the semifinal against Camden County’s Jesse Batten, which went to triple overtime.

Daniels got an escape to win in the ultimate tiebreaker.

In the final, he faced Forsyth Central’s Luke Sacchetti, who took a 36-1 record into the match.

Daniels took a 3-2 decision.

“He’s always had it in him,” Scarbor said.

As Sectional champions, both Flowers and Daniels will get first-round byes in the state championships.

“They both will have a chance to get through,” Scarbor said.

Bledsoe went 4-2 at the Sectional, losing twice to Lambert’s Alexander Kelly, the second time in the third-place match.

Dillon, a sophomore, also lost in the third-place match, dropping a 4-1 decision to North Paulding’s Rhyen Miller.

A football player like Daniels, Dillon also has been battling injuries this season.

Sanchez, a freshman with no wrestling experience before this year, was the biggest surprise of the weekend.

A former soccer player, she knew very little about wrestling before going out for the team this season.

“I don’t think she realizes that she is in the top 12 in the state,” Scarbor said.

Competing at 145 pounds, she pinned Southeast Whitfield’s Reagan Smith in her first match, but then was pinned by Alexander’s Mckenna Samuelson.

She won her next two matches by pins in 31 and 52 seconds to reach the third-place match against Jordan’s Taziyah Collins.

Sanchez pinned her in 1:47.

Scarbor said he has rarely been around a wrestler who gets so nervous before a match.

“Everything is still so new to her,” he said. “But she’s pretty tough and she turned it on in the Sectionals.”

Two other of the team’s girls wrestled in Thomaston, with Jennifer Tercero competing at 115 and Kimya Crawford at 130.

Still, it was a bittersweet weekend for Scarbor as only four of the 10 boys he took to Valdosta qualified to go to state.

“We did have two freshmen who won matches,” he said, referring to Britton Marshall and Anthony Duque.

Junior Billy Lawton won three times and finished seventh. Junior Eric Henson won twice and was eighth. Sophomore Trenton Dunbar went 1-2.

Only one Packer failed to win a match at the Sectional.

Of the 10 who competed, only Bledsoe and Jean Garcia are seniors.