Colquitt claims three region titles; 12 Packers advance to Sectional

Published 9:54 am Sunday, February 4, 2024

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County wrestling team won three championships at the Region 1-7A traditional tournament on Saturday at Lowndes where nine other Packers also qualified for Sectionals.

Logan Paradice at 150, Matthew Dillon at 215 and Turk Daniels at 285 won their weight classes.

Britton Marshall at 126, Eric Henson at 132 and Russell Flowers at 157 finished second.

Taking third-place finishes were Cristobal Camarena at 113, Cruz Grijalva at 120, Trenton Dunbar at 165 and Rafael King at 190.

Billy Lawton at 138 and Randy Smith at 144 finished fourth.

The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the Sectional, which will be held Saturday, Feb. 10, at Valdosta.

The top six finishers at the Sectional will qualify for the state championships, which will run Feb. 15-17 at the Macon Centreplex.

As expected, Camden County, which also won the region duals title, finished first on Saturday with 308.5 points.

But the Packers finished second with 203. Richmond Hill, which finished second at region duals, was third, followed by Valdosta and Lowndes.

Paradice remains unbeaten at 10-0 this season after taking a pair of tech fall victories on Saturday.

In the semifinal, he won 24-11 over Valdosta’s Caden Sapp. In the first-place match, he took a 17-2 win over Camden County’s Brock Weaver, who is 27-3 this season.

Dillon pinned Richmond Hill’s Blake Whittaker to advance to the first-place match, where he took a 9-3 decision over Camden County’s Joseph Schulze.

Daniels is now 42-3 after his two region tournament victories.

The defending state runner-up pinned Valdosta’s Simeon Roundtree and in the first-place match won in sudden victory over Camden County’s Jesse Batten.

Marshall defeated Valdosta’s Tavares Sharp in the semifinal, but was pinned by Camden’s Hunter Prosen in the first-place match.

Henson took an 11-1 major decision over Richmond Hill’s Mathew Josefik in his semifinal before being pinned by Camden’s Anthony Santos.

Flowers, too, won his semifinal match, taking an 11-9 decision over Valdosta’s Kaiden Richardson.

He then was pinned by Camden’s Konlin Weaver.

In the girl’s region tournament on Friday, Colquitt County’s Ki’myra Crawford placed third and will advance to this Friday’s Sectionals.